Variable torque motor/generator/transmission

ABSTRACT

A motor/generator/transmission system includes: an axle; a stator ring having a plurality of stator coils disposed around the periphery of the stator ring, wherein each phase of the plurality of stator coils includes a respective set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires separated at the center tap with electronic switches for connecting the parallel non-twisted wires of each phase of the stator coils all in series, all in parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel; a rotor support structure coupled to the axle; a first rotor ring and a second rotor ring each having an axis of rotation coincident with the axis of rotation of the axle, at least one of the first rotor ring or the second rotor ring being slidably coupled to the rotor support structure and configured to translate along the rotor support structure in a first axial direction or in a second axial direction.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation-in-part (CIP) of U.S.Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 15/332,824, filed Oct. 24, 2016,and titled “VARIABLE TORQUE MOTOR/GENERATOR/TRANSMISSION,” which is adivisional of U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 14/815,733(U.S. Pat. No. 9,479,037), filed Jul. 31, 2015, which claims the benefitunder 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/032,468,filed Aug. 1, 2014; U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/146,694, filedApr. 13, 2015; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/146,725, filedApr. 13, 2015. The present application also claims the benefit under 35U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/322,052, filedApr. 13, 2016, U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/353,413, Filed Jun.22, 2016, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/399,907, filed Sep.26, 2016. The foregoing U.S. provisional and non-provisionalapplications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

To date more than 99.9% of electricity generated worldwide is from someform of generator with rotational movement. Solar panels account forabout 0.05%. Between 65 and 70% of the world industrial power and about57% of all consumed power is used by electric motors. This relates to anestimated 16,000-plus terawatt-hours (TWh) annual consumption ofelectrical power worldwide. Due to this trend of consumption andefficiency improvement, conventional modern electrical generators andmotors can operate in the 90 to 98% efficiency range near their ratedrevolutions per minute (RPM) and torque specifications. For this reasonit is thought that the modern generator and motor industries are verymature and small incremental improvements can be made. However, whilethe narrow band of high efficiency rating in generators and motors ishigh, when these same generators and motors are operating outside thespecified RPM and/or torque rating, the efficiencies dramaticallydecrease sometimes as low as 30 to 60%.

While most conventional generation systems use a continuous RPM andtorque power source, renewable energies that are now emerging have muchgreater RPM and torque changes, as the power source is variable,untimely and most times unpredictable. As our capacity in conventionalgeneration and distribution is reached, the need for generators in therenewable energies to be sensitive to this torque and still be efficientcan be a very high priority. Likewise in the motor sector there exists agreater need for wider operating ranges with high efficiency for theindustrial use and especially in the transportation sector as the demandfor hybrid and “plug in” electric vehicles increases exponentially. Anelectrical motor's efficiency rarely stays constant, as the real worldoperating conditions require starts, stops and variable loads.

The modern day vehicle alternator converts some of the rotational powerof the combustion engine into electrical power in order to operate theelectronics and maintain battery charge. These alternators generally are50 to 60% efficient. In 2007 there were about 806 million vehicles andtoday it is estimated to exceed a billion in operation. Almost 16% ofmanmade CO₂ comes from these vehicles. Even a small amount of efficiencyimprovement in these alternators can make a dramatic improvement infewer emissions and a considerable decrease in fuel consumption. Thisalternator efficiency loss is due primarily to air gap andinefficiencies in the rotor coil system (electromagnet). Permanentmagnets in the rotor are not generally used in vehicular alternators dueto the inability to regulate the output for variable loads efficiently.

Permanent magnet alternators (PMA) are used in small wind machinestoday. They typically have a high startup speed, as cogging of the rotorand the natural magnetic attraction of the stator tend to require asubstantial minimum wind speed in order to overcome this limitation.They also lack the RPM range required to produce efficient power in thelower speed range as well as having a current limitation at very highwind speeds. They do not have the ability to regulate their output asthe construction allows maximum power production at a given RPM. Thestator selection limits the maximum current or voltage; it has a verylimited efficiency range.

With medium to large wind systems, large AC generators are used and areconverted to DC. Then power invertors invert the DC power signal to ACand distribute this current to the grid. This conversion comes with lostefficiency and heat production. This also limits the turbine startupspeed and maximum output power. In large wind turbines, synchronous3-phase generators can be used that usually have the rotor powered bythe electrical grid in order to tie into the power grid frequency. Whileusing the power inverter system to regulate the output power, they loseefficiency as well as limiting the turbine RPM range. Other renewableenergy system generators such as tidal and wave generators have the sameproblems with efficiency loss due to limited RPM and torque ranges forthe wide variations in RPM and torque range of these systems.

The use of permanent magnet motors in hybrid and “plug-in” electricvehicles has a very limited efficiency range as well. These motors liketheir PMA counterparts are limited by their construction in RPM, torqueand current usage. They also have a problem with back EMF and extremedrag while in coast mode due to the permanent magnet passingcontinuously by the iron core of the stator.

DRAWINGS

The Detailed Description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. The use of the same reference numbers in different instances inthe description and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a motor/generator/transmission(MGT) unit, which may be connected to one or more additional MGT units,in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a MGT unit, such as the MGTunit illustrated in FIG. 1, in accordance with an example embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a partial exploded perspective view of a MGT unit, such as theMGT unit illustrated in FIG. 1, in accordance with an example embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a partial exploded perspective view of a MGT unit, such as theMGT unit illustrated in FIG. 1, in accordance with an example embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side elevation view of a MGT unit, such asthe MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 1, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure, where a rotor includes a set ofmagnets, shown in a neutral position.

FIG. 6 is cross-sectional side elevation view of the MGT unitillustrated in FIG. 5, where the set of magnets is moved from theneutral position to engage the first stator with the rotor.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic illustration of separated center three-phasestator winding assemblies, in accordance with an example embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic illustration of a two-wire separated statorwinding assembly, in accordance with an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic illustration of a four-wire separated statorwinding assembly, in accordance with an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagrammatic illustration of a six-wire separated statorwinding assembly, in accordance with an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a diagrammatic illustration of stator winding sets in aparallel gear configuration, in accordance with an example embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 11B is a diagrammatic illustration of stator winding sets in aparallel gear configuration, where a portion of multiple parallelnon-twisted wires are connected in parallel and one or more wires aredisconnected from the connected portion of the multiple parallelnon-twisted wires, in accordance with an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 11C is a diagrammatic illustration of stator winding sets in aparallel gear configuration, where a portion of multiple parallelnon-twisted wires are connected in parallel and one or more wires aredisconnected from the connected portion of the multiple parallelnon-twisted wires, in accordance with an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic illustration of stator winding sets in apartially parallel/partially series gear configuration, in accordancewith an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is another diagrammatic illustration of stator winding sets in apartially parallel/partially series gear configuration, in accordancewith an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic illustration of stator winding sets in aseries gear configuration, in accordance with an example embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating control components for an MGTunit/system, in accordance with an example embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view illustrating MGT unit, in accordance withan example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17 is another perspective view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG.16, in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 is a perspective view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 16with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 is another perspective view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG.16 with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 is another perspective view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG.16 with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 is another perspective view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG.16 with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 22 is a side elevation view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 16with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure, where two rotors are shown apartfrom one another, in positions that are a distance from a stator of theMGT unit (Position 1).

FIG. 23 is a side elevation view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 16with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure, where two rotors are shown apartfrom one another and an inner edge of each rotor is coplanar with anouter edge of the stator (Position 2).

FIG. 24 is a side elevation view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 16with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure, where two rotors are broughttogether an inner edges of the two rotors are coplanar with a centralplane of the stator (Position 3).

FIG. 25 is a perspective view illustrating MGT unit, in accordance withan example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 is another perspective view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG.25 with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 27 is another perspective view of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG.25 with a portion of its housing removed, in accordance with an exampleembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 28 is a perspective view of a rotor assembly at least partiallysurrounded by a stator ring of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 25, inaccordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 29 is a perspective view of a rotor assembly of the MGT unitillustrated in FIG. 25, in accordance with an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 30 is a cross-sectional side view of a rotor assembly at leastpartially surrounded by a stator ring of the MGT unit illustrated inFIG. 25, in accordance with an example embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 31 is another perspective view of a rotor assembly at leastpartially surrounded by a stator ring of the MGT unit illustrated inFIG. 25, in accordance with an example embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 32 is a perspective view of a rotor actuator of the MGT unitillustrated in FIG. 25, in accordance with an example embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 33 is another perspective view of the rotor actuator of the MGTunit illustrated in FIG. 25, in accordance with an example embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 34 is a side elevation view of a first set of gears for the rotoractuator of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 25, in accordance with anexample embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 35 is a perspective view of a planetary gear, in accordance with anexample embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 36 is a side elevation view of a second set of gears for the rotoractuator of the MGT unit illustrated in FIG. 25, including the planetarygear of FIG. 35, in accordance with an example embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 37A is a schematic of a stator winding configuration of a 3-phasestator, in accordance with an example embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 37B is a schematic of a dual wound stator configurationimplementing multiple separately controlled split-pole 3-phase statorsin a common stator assembly, in accordance with an example embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 38 is a block diagram illustrating a hybrid vehicle that employs anMGT unit, such as any of the MGT units illustrated by FIGS. 1 through37B, in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

The state of the art in permanent magnet electric motors and generatorsis that the magnetic field of the rotor is not adjustable, but isinstead fixed. As a result most motors and generators are designed for aspecific speed and torque with a very narrow range of optimumefficiency. High torque requirements in a motor or generator requiremore powerful permanent magnets which in turn create a large back EMFthat is in turn overcome with high voltage and amperage. When motorspeed and torque are constant, the motor or generator can be designedfor optimum efficiency at its design speed and torque. Many times thisefficiency is above 90%. Thus in the manufacture of these motors thestator core, core windings and permanent magnets are all selected to acttogether in the most efficient manner possible to produce the selecteddesign torque, rpm and volt, amp ratios at an optimum or thresholdefficiency. Once these key components are selected and placed in themotor or generator they, under the present state of the art, cannot bechanged. Only the power and speed of the driving force in a generatorand the volts and amperage of the electricity into the motor can bechanged. But when this same motor or generator is put in service wherethe speed and torque vary widely such as in land vehicles and/or wind orwater powered generators, the back EMF of the fixed magnets must stillbe overcome when the speed and torque requirements are less than themaximum designed for and the stator wiring sufficient and appropriatelysized when the speed and torque are greater than the maximum designedfor. When they are not, the overall efficiency of the motor or generatordramatically drops in many cases to as low as 20% for say rapid transitvehicles, automobiles, or wind/water powered generators, and the like.

The present disclosure is directed to an electric generator and/or motortransmission system that is capable of operating with high efficiencywide volt and amperage operating range and extremely variable torque andRPM conditions. This disclosure utilizes the variability of renewableresources such as inconsistent wind speed, untimely ocean wave movementor braking energy in a hybrid vehicle and more efficiently increases thegenerating potential that conventional generators cannot do. On themotor side, the disclosure produces a variable range of torque/RPMpossibility to more efficiently meet the requirements of hybridvehicles. The system can dynamically change the output “size” of themotor/generator, e.g., by varying the magnetic field induced in thestator by switching multiple non-twisted parallel coil wires in thestator between being connected in all series, all parallel orcombinations thereof and correspondingly varying, adjusting or focusingthe magnetic field of the permanent magnets acting on the stator andmodularly engaging and disengaging rotor/stator sets as power demandsincrease or decrease. And as torque/RPM or amperage/voltage requirementschange, the system can activate one stator or another (in multiple MGTunits connected to a common computer processor) within the rotor/statorsets and change from parallel to series winding or the reverse throughsets of 2, 4, 6 or more parallel, three phase, non-twisted coil windingsto meet the torque/RPM or amperage/voltage requirements to improve(e.g., optimize or nearly optimize) efficiency.

As previously discussed herein, the state of the art in permanent magnetelectric motors and generators is that the magnetic field of a rotor isnot adjustable but fixed. While it is true that the magnetic field of apermanent magnet is fixed, it is the alternating flow of magnetic fluxbetween the permanent magnets of the rotor and the cores of the statorand the alternating flow of electricity in the wires of the stator corethat determine how a permanent magnet motor or generator will operate.Where there is a small amount of magnetic flux flowing between the rotormagnets and the stator core, it is as if the rotor of themotor/generator was fitted with small or lower strength permanentmagnets. If the amount of flux flowing between the rotor magnets and thestator core is large, the reverse is true. When small permanent magnetsare used in the rotor of a motor, the wires in the stator core coils areappropriately sized with the requisite number of turns to produce amagnetic field in the stator teeth (or cores) that will efficientlyreact with the magnetic field of the rotor magnets to produce theoptimum (or nearly optimum) flux flow or interaction between them andoptimum (or nearly optimum) torque or rpm. In the case of a generator,the wires are sized with the requisite number of turns to efficientlyaccommodate the electricity generated by the alternating flux induced inthe stator cores by the permanent magnets on the rotating rotor and willin many cases be different from the wires of the motor even when thepermanent magnets are the same size. When large permanent magnets areused in the rotor, the same is true in that the wires of the stator corein both the motor and generator are appropriately sized with therequisite number of turns. The wires and number of amp turns, however,in the large permanent magnet motor is different from the wires andnumber of turns in the small permanent magnet motor/generator, and theoutput size of the two motor/generators is dynamically different.

A motor/generator/transmission (MGT) system is disclosed that has anoutput that can be dynamically changed with more efficient performanceover a predefined range than previously possible under the current stateof the art. The alternating flux of the permanent magnets flowing fromthe rotor magnets to the stator cores or interacting with the statorcores can be varied or adjusted with several different techniques, forexample: (1) by varying the alignment of the rotor magnets with thestator cores where the radial flux from the rotor magnets is partially,in varying degrees, engaged with the stator cores; (2) utilizing tworotors, one on either side of the center plane of the stator, where thealternating north and south magnetic poles circumscribing the rotors arein the same radial position relative to one another, the distance fromthe center plane of the stator to the center planes of the rotors can bevaried, the polar magnetic fields from the magnets on the two rotorsoppose one another, where the combined polar magnetic field between thetwo rotors is deflected, twisted or focused in the radial directioncreating a greater flux field or flow in the radial direction into thestator cores than would be available from the sum of the fields of thetwo rotors and their respective magnets acting alone—this field isadjusted by moving the rotors closer to each other and to the centerplane of the stator, or by moving the rotors further away; and (3) acombination of techniques (1) and (2) acting together on the samestator. Utilizing any of these techniques to adjust the flow of themagnetic flux between the stator and the rotor has a same or similareffect to being able to change the size of the permanent magnets of theMGT system at any time during its operation.

Changing the wiring and number of turns to modify the flux of a statorcore and the electricity flowing in a core coil wires is not as easy toadjust or vary as the flux flowing from the rotor permanent magnets.However, this disclosure provides a number of methods and configurationsto achieve distinctly different volt/amp characteristics in the statorcore coils, where each stator core can be configured for an optimized(or nearly optimized) flux flow between the rotor(s) and the stator byadjusting the polar magnetic flux from the rotor acting on the stator toimprove efficiency. This can be accomplished by separating themulti-phase stator wiring at a center tap and providing multiplenon-twisted parallel wires in the core windings for each phase leg (andin some cases with wires of different size) with the ability to switchand connect the multiple wires in all series, all parallel, andcombinations of parallel and series configurations. In someimplementations, one or more wires may be disconnected to provideadditional configurations (e.g., dropping from a six wire system to afour wire system, or the like). In some implementations, the phasewindings are also switchable from a star or wye (Y) configuration to adelta (e.g., triangle) configuration. In some implementations, thesystem can provide two separate multi-phase wiring configurations withseparate controllers on the same stator, and in some implementationsseparating the coils in each phase leg (including the multiple wirestherein) so that any of the stator phases in either separate multi-phaseconfiguration can be switched (e.g., using electronic switches) to beconnected in series, in parallel, or in combinations thereof, in eitherthe star (Y) or Delta configuration.

In embodiments, the MGT system can also be adjusted by joining togethermultiple modular MGT units (e.g., each having respective stator(s) androtor(s)) to vary the overall system output. For example, the MGT unitscan be joined together under common control from a central processorwhere they may operate together for increased power or at least one canoperate while another is in neutral. The MGT units may also beconfigured to shift back and forth between the different series,parallel, or combination (i.e., series and parallel) wiring andswitching combinations to provide smooth transitions between the variouscombinations. The MGT units can also be shifted back and forth betweenDelta or Star phase configurations with series/parallel switching of themultiple wires in each phase.

In embodiments of this disclosure, any single MGT unit may have any orall of the combinations of multiple wiring and switching describedherein, including switching between Delta and WYE configurations,multiple wire windings in series or parallel or in sets of two or morewires in parallel connected to each other in series, and where the MGTunit/system is multi-pole, the individual coils of a phase winding maybe connected in series or parallel or in sets of two or more coils inparallel connected to each other in series, providing a wide range ofvolt/amp and torque speed ratios in a single motor/generator that iselectronically reconfigurable to meet widely varying conditions. Thisfeature coupled with mechanical shifting of the rotor magnetic fieldbetween the first stator, the second stator or more stators in one ormore MGT units (e.g., being able to control no engagement of any statorand/or the partial engagement of one or any combination of two stators)and the ability to focus the magnetic field of the rotor or rotors onthe stator cores provides an ability through a computer system processorto select and quickly change the winding configuration of the stator tomeet widely variable speed and torque requirements that may be placed onthe MGT unit/system at optimum (or near optimum or otherwise selected)energy efficiency. The ability to have the magnetic field of the rotorengaged with a first stator in a first wiring configuration, switchingthe second stator to a second wiring configuration and thentransitioning the magnetic field of the rotor from the first stator tothe second stator provides for a smooth transfer of power between thetorque/speed of the first setting and the torque/speed of the secondsetting and further allows the computer system by fine tuning the degreeof engagement between the rotor magnets and the stator coils to adjust,increase or diminish, the strength of the magnetic field between therotor magnets and the stator to optimize the power efficiency of the MGTunit/system at most any desired speed and torque. The same smoothtransition of power applies when both stators are engaged with themagnetic field of the rotor and the stators are switched from one wiringconfiguration to another by switching the first stator and then thesecond stator and in the interval between the switching, the engagementof the magnetic field with one or both stators is adjusted toaccommodate a smooth transition between the two wiring configurationsand improve the power efficiency of the MOT unit/system.

This disclosure also provides systems and methods for adjusting themagnetic field of the permanent magnet rotor in an electric motor orgenerator. It does so by adjusting or focusing the magnetic field actingon the stator cores to meet the torque speed requirements of the motoror generator at any given time. By reducing or increasing the magneticfield acting on the stator core, the MGT system in turn reduces orincreases the back EMF and requires lower or higher voltage and amperage(power) to run the motor, or varies torque (e.g., wind speed) needed toturn a generator, thereby allowing the motor/generator employing the MGTsystem to adjust the back EMF to meet varying conditions and operate themotor/generator at greater efficiency over much wider ranges than everbefore possible. With these capabilities the MGT system can control thestrength of the interaction of the magnetic fields of both the rotor(s)and the stator over a relatively uniform range of variable powerrequirements with high efficiency. The efficiency of any electric motoris dependent on the balance between the electromagnetic field of thestator and the electromagnetic field of the rotor interacting with thestator. The state of the art inverter/controller in the MGT unit canregulate the voltage corning from the batteries or other electricalsource which in turn regulates the amperage in the stator coil wireswithin the capacity of the wires and voltage source. The MGT unit hasthe ability to switch between different wiring combinations with adifferent resistance in each creating a different range of amperageturns in each wiring combination as the inverter/controller through thecomputer processor increases the voltage in each wiring configurationfrom low to high. The different wiring configurations are thenconfigured, combined, and coordinated with the voltage regulation sothat the overall range of the amperage flowing in the stator coils canbe uniformly regulated (increased or decreased) over a greatly extendedrange as the computer processor switches the wiring from oneconfiguration to the next correspondingly changing the value of the ampturns in the stator coils and the resulting magnetic field strength.With the MGT units ability to focus or control the magnetic field of therotor magnets interacting with the stator coils over a much larger rangefrom low to high by the movement of the rotor or rotors with respect tothe stator, the computer process may be configured make the position ofthe rotor with respect to the stator a function of the amp turns in thestator coils so that the rotor is positioned to provide the optimumefficiency or balance between the magnetic fields of the stator coilsand the rotor permanent magnets.

Example Implementations—MGT Including Selectively Moveable Stator(s)

Referring generally to FIGS. 1 through 6, MGT units and systems aredescribed in accordance with some embodiments of this disclosure. FIG. 1shows an MGT unit 300, which in some embodiments can be connected to oneor more additional MGT units 300 to form a larger MGT system. As shownin FIGS. 2 through 6, the MGT unit 300 includes a rotor 314 that isrotatably coupled to an axle 308. The rotor 314 and the axle 308 towhich the rotor is fixed have an axis of rotation 306, where the axle308 extends longitudinally in a first direction along the axis ofrotation 306. The MGT unit 300 also includes stator cage 302 that alsoextends longitudinally in the first direction and includes one or morestator rings (e.g., a first stator ring 310, a second stator ring 312,and possibly a third stator ring, a fourth stator ring, and so on),where each of the stator rings includes a plurality of stator cores withtheir respective coils/windings disposed about a periphery of the statorring. In embodiments of the disclosure, the stator rings are spacedapart from one another in the first direction. The rotor 304 includes atleast one rotor ring 314 with permanent magnets disposed about theperiphery of the rotor ring 314. The rotor ring 314 can be coupled withthe axle 308.

In embodiments of the disclosure, the stator ring 310 and the statorring 312 are actuatable between three or more positions. The stator ring310 and the stator ring 312 can be contained within stator cage 302 orcoupled to any other support structure that is moveable by an actuator.The stator ring 310 and the stator ring 312 may each have differentcores and/or winding configurations so that operating characteristics ofan MGT unit 300 can be changed when the stator ring 310 and the statorring 312 translate between a first stator position where the stator ring312 is engaged with the rotor ring 314; a second stator position wherethe stator ring 310 is engaged with the rotor ring 314; and a thirdposition where neither the stator ring 310 nor the stator ring 312 isengaged with the rotor ring 314. It should be noted that the order ofstator positions is provided by way of example and is not meant to limitthe present disclosure. In other embodiments, a neutral stator positioncan be positioned between two stators. A neutral stator position canalso be at a different end of the MGT unit 300. Further, an MGT unit 300can include more than one neutral position and so forth. In embodimentsof the disclosure, the magnets of the rotor ring 314 can be equallyspaced on the periphery of the rotor ring 314, where the outerperipheral surface of the magnets is at a defined minimal distance(e.g., gap) from the inner peripheral surface of the stator ring 310/312core surface, causing electricity to flow in the stator windings as therotor ring 314 rotates if acting as a generator, or causing the rotorring 314 to rotate if electric current is supplied to the statorwindings from an external source.

The stator rings 310 and 312 and be identical, reconfigurable, and/ordifferently structured. For example, the stator rings 310 and 312 canemploy different stator windings or selectively reconfigurable statorwindings (e.g., as described herein) to provide different power, torque,amperage, and/or voltage capacities and efficiencies. In someembodiments, a computer system can be used to send commands to theactuators of the stator rings to move them in and out of statorpositions to achieve enhanced efficiency under widely varying input andoutput conditions, such as wind powered generators, motors for citybusses, and so forth. In embodiments, an actuator 322 (e.g., a steppermotor, linear actuator, or the like) can be directly or indirectlycoupled with the stator ring 310 and the stator ring 312. In someembodiments, the actuator 322 can include an arm configured to drive thestator cage 302 containing the stator ring 310 and the stator ring 312,thereby causing stator ring 310 and the stator ring 312 to move relativeto the rotor ring 314 to a desired position.

In embodiments of the disclosure, multiple MGT units 300 can beconnected together (e.g., end-to-end as described with reference to FIG.1). For example, the axle 308 can be configured as a modular shaft, andmultiple modular shafts can be connected together to form, for instance,a common axle. In some embodiments, each MGT unit 300 can include one ormore endplates 316, which can include bearings (e.g., rotary bearings).In some embodiments, the axles 308 of two or more MGT units 300 can beconnected together to allow additional MGT units 300 to be added inline(e.g., under a common control system to form larger and more powerfulunits with variable torque and/or power capabilities). The axle 308 of afirst MGT units 300 can include a male end 318 configured to extend intoa receiving cavity of an endplate 316 of an adjacently positioned secondMGT units 300, whereby the male end 318 can connect to a female end 320of an axle 308 of a second MGT unit 300.

Example Implementations—MGT Including Selectively Moveable Rotors

Referring generally to FIGS. 16 through 24, MGT units 400 and systemsare described in accordance with additional embodiments of thisdisclosure. FIGS. 16 through 24 shows an embodiment of an MGT unit400/system that employs variable torque magnetic focusing. For example,an MGT unit 400 can be configured to focus and regulate the interactionof the magnetic flux between rotor rings 444 and at least one statorring 439. To do this, the MGT unit 400 employs at least two rotors, onelocated on either side of a center plane of the stator ring 439, suchthat they can each be translated towards the center plane of the statoror away from it. As the rotor rings 444 are translated from theirfurthest point from the center plane of the stator, towards the centerplane of the stator the interaction of the magnetic flux between therotor rings 444 and the stator ring 439 increases, thereby allowing themagnetic flux to be focused (e.g., adjusted) so that the magneticinteraction between the rotor rings 444 and the stator ring 439 can becontrolled to optimize or improve system efficiency.

In an example implementation, the rotor rings 444 can be translatedbetween at least the following positions: (1) a first position where theinside edges of the rotor rings 444 are approximately one rotor lengthor more (length of the permanent magnets 443 in the axial direction)from the outside edge of the stator ring 439 (e.g., as shown in FIG.22); (2) a second position where the inside edges of the rotor rings 444are in line with the outside edges of the stator ring 439 (e.g., asshown in FIG. 23); and a third position where the inside edges of therotor rings 444 are in line with the center plane of the stator ring 439(e.g., as shown in FIG. 24). In the first position (1), there is minimalor no interaction of the magnetic flux between the rotor rings 444 andstator ring 439 and no or minimal flow of electricity in the statorwires when the rotor is turned by outside forces. This can be consideredas a neutral position for the MGT unit 400. As the rotor rings 444 aretranslated from the first position (1) to the second position (2), thepolar magnetic fields of the permanent magnets 443 on the rotor rings444 begin to oppose one another and deflect or focus in the radialdirection towards the stator cores creating a greater interaction ormagnetic flux flow between the rotor magnets 443 and the stator coresthan the sum of the two rotors and their respective magnets 443 wouldproduce from the same position alone and, where the interaction of themagnetic field from the rotor rings 444 to the stator ring 439 increaseexponentially as the rotor rings 444 are moved from the first position(1) to second position (2) but is of low value but sufficient as agenerator to provide low or trickle power to recharge the batteries overtime in a hybrid vehicle operating under combustion power with no orminimal additional drag on or additional power required from acombustion engine. As the rotor rings 444 are translated from the secondposition (2) to the third position (3) the interaction of the magneticfield or flux flow from the rotor rings 444 to the stator ring 439increases linearly to the maximum interaction or flux flow between therotor magnets 443 and the stator cores as does the power generated whenacting as either a generator or motor.

Referring generally to FIGS. 16 through 24, the MGT unit 400 may have ahousing including a cover 430, a front end plate 420, a rear end plate420, and an end plate cover 422. As shown in FIG. 19, the front endplate 420 and the end plate cover 422 provide an enclosure for a motorcontrol box 424 that can include linear actuator stepper motors 432 and462 and wiring connections (not shown). The MGT unit 400 can include anaxle 410 with a fluted male connecting end and a fluted femaleconnecting end and bolting connections for joining the MGT unit 400 withother MGT units 400. The connecting end may be of any style that allowstwo or more MGT units 400 to be physically mated whereby their axles 410are joined and turn as one common axle. An end plate 420 may also acceptan adaptor plate in compliance with industry standards for joining othermanufactured equipment including automotive engines and transmissions.The front and rear end plates 420 of two or more MGT units 400 may bebolted together to ensure the physical continuity of any number ofmodules.

The rear end plate 420 may be of any style that allows another MGT unit400 to be mated to it, whereby their axles 410 are joined and turn asone common axle. The rear end plate 420 provides a housing for a flutedfemale end of the axle 410 and bolting connections for joining it toother MGT units 400. The rear end plate may also accept an adaptor platein compliance with industry standards for joining other manufacturedequipment including automotive engines and transmissions. The front andrear end plates of two or more MGT units may be bolted together toensure the physical continuity of any number of modules.

The rotor rings 444 can be slidably coupled to a rotor support structure446 that is coupled to the axle 410. The rotor support structure 446 caninclude two end disks 448 spaced apart and affixed perpendicular to theaxle 410 through their center points, a plurality of (e.g., three ormore) linear slide rods 447 parallel to the axle 410, radially outwardof the axle 410 and equally spaced around the axle 410, affixed on eachend to an end disk 448. The rotor support structure 446 rotates with theaxle 410. In one implementation, the forward end disk 448 is affixed tothe axle 410 near the end plate 420, and the rear end disk 448 includesthree or more holes through the rear disk in the axial direction outwardfrom the axle 410 and equally spaced around the axle 410 with bushingsor linear bearings (not shown) to allow the passage and free movement ofthe rotor push rods in the axial direction through the rear end disk 448but maintain their radial position relative to the axle 410.

A rotor pusher/puller 471 can include a pushing disk 472 spaced apartand rearward of the rear rotor ring 444 and rear rotor support end disk448. The pushing disk 472 is slidably affixed to the axle 410 throughits center point by means of a bushing or linear bearing (not shown) toallow translation of the pushing disk 472 in the axial direction. Therotor pusher/puller 471 also includes a plurality of (e.g., three ormore) linear slide rods 475 spaced and outward from the axle 410,equally spaced around the axle 410 passing through the bushings orlinear bearings in the rotor support rear end disk 448 and affixed tothe rear rotor.

A translator bar 467 can comprise a flat bar with a hole in the centerof the bar perpendicular to the flat face of the bar. The translator bar467 extends in both directions away from the center hole (a holeslightly larger in diameter than the MGT axle 410 diameter, where theaxle 410 may pass through the hole in the translator bar 467perpendicular to the bar and where the bar is affixed to the rear faceof the pushing disk 472 by thrust bearings and is affixed on each end tothe rotor linear actuator screw bars 465. The linear actuator screw bars465 are mounted parallel to the axle 410 outward of the rotor rings 444,rotor support structure end plates 420 and the stator, and they extendthrough threaded holes in each end of the translator bar 467 so that asthe rotor support structure 446 and the rotor pusher/puller 471 rotatewith the axle 410—the translator bar 467 does not necessarily but maymove or translate in the axial direction when the linear actuator screwbars 465 are turned clockwise or counter clockwise. Thus, as thetranslator bar 467 is moved in the axial direction the rotorpusher/puller 471 is moved in the same direction as is the rear rotorring 444.

The MGT unit 400 also includes rotor linear actuators 461 that receivecommands from the computer system to activate and turn the two or morethreaded rotor linear actuator screw bars 465 which extend through thethreaded holes in the translator bar 467 causing the translator bar 467to move back and forth in the axial direction as the screw bars 465 areturned. The threaded rotor linear actuator screw bars 465 are parallelto the axle 410 and outward of the rotor rings 444, stator ring 439,rotor pusher/puller 471, and rotor support structure 446 and arerotationally affixed to the MGT end plates 420 extending through thefront end plate 420 where the stepper motors 462 are attached either asa direct drive with one stepper motor each or a single stepper motor andchain or belt drive to each. The connection between the translator bar467 and the actuator screw bars 465 may be a conventional male threadedscrew bar and female threaded holes in the translator bar 467 or aconventional ball screw arrangement.

A stator support structure 440 can include two or more linear slide bars442 equally spaced around the axle 410, parallel to it, outward of therotor, stator, rotor pusher/puller 471 and rotor support structure 446.The stator support structure 440 extends between the front and rear endplates 420. Linear bearing blocks 438 can be slidably affixed to thestator support structure 440 to translate in both directions between theend plates 420, where the linear bearing blocks 438 are in turn affixedto the stator ring 439 holding the stator ring 439 in a position whereits central axis is coaxial with the axis of the MGT axle 410, and thecircumferential face of its stator cores is separated from thecircumferential rotor magnet face by a small air gap.

The MGT unit 400 can also include stator linear actuators 431 (e.g.,stepper motors 432) that receiving commands from the computer system toactivate and turn the two or more threaded stator linear actuator screwbars 435. The threaded stator linear actuator screw bars 435 areparallel to the axle 410 and outward of the rotor rings 444, stator ring439, rotor pusher/puller 471 and rotor support structure 446 and arerotationally affixed to the MGT end plates 420 extending through thefront end plate 420, where the stepper motors 432 are attached either asa direct drive with one stepper motor each or a single stepper motor andchain or belt drive to each. Linear screw or ball screw bearing blocks437 are affixed to each screw bar 435 to translate back and forth in theaxial direction as the screw is turned by the stepper motor 432 whichare in turn affixed to the stator ring 439 causing it to be positionedin a defined spot relative to the rotor rings 444 based on commands fromthe computer system.

In embodiments, the stator ring 439 can comprise laminated iron platerings stacked together in the axial direction with slots through theplates forming teeth (cores) on the inner surface of the stator ring 439such that when stacked together wires may be inserted in the slots thatrun the length of the stator in the axial direction parallel to the MGTaxle 410 (e.g., in a manner consistent with normal industry practice forthe state of the art of stators for electric motors). Wires are placedin the slots by winding the wire around one or more teeth (cores) toform a coil 441 and a successive series of coils 441 evenly spacedaround the periphery of the stator ring 439, e.g., in a mannerconsistent with normal industry practice for the state of the art forthe wiring of multi-phase electric motor stators except that the wiresof each coil 441 phase leg include two or more non-twisted wiresparallel to each other and separated at the center tap in a switchingsystem that can place the multiple wires all in series, all in parallel,or a combination of series and parallel to achieve a number of differentwiring configurations that depends on the number of wires, The switchingsystem can also be configured to place the phase wiring in the star/wye(“Y”) or Delta wiring configurations where the voltage amperage andfrequency of the power to the coils 441 is controlled according tocommands by the computer system. Example implementations of variousstator winding configurations are further discussed herein. Any of thestator winding and switching system implementations can be applied toany embodiment of an MGT unit 400 described herein.

The rotor rings 444 include permanent magnets 443, which may be evenlyspaced around the periphery of an iron disk or disks. The rotor rings444 are affixed to the linear slide rods 447 of the rotor supportstructure 446 and at least one of the rotor rings 444 is slidablyaffixed to the linear slide rods 447 running through bushings or linearbearings in the rotor disk securing the rotor rings 444 so that theiraxis of rotation is collinear with the axle 410 axis of rotation. Whenthe rotor rings 444 are positioned beneath the stator ring 439, theouter surfaces of the rotor rings 444 are separated from the innersurface of the stator ring 439 by a small air gap. The slidably affixedrotor rings 444 may be moved in the axial direction based on commandsfrom the computer system to the rotor linear actuator 461 to bepositioned in a defined spot relative to the stator ring 439.

As previously discussed herein, FIGS. 22 through 24 show examplepositioning of the rotor rings 444 relative to the stator ring 439. Forexample, FIG. 22 shows the rotor rings 444 positioned by the linearactuators on either side of the stator ring 439 (approximately one rotorlength in the axial direction apart from the edge of the stator ring439) where the interaction of the flux between the rotor magnets 443 andthe stator windings is a very low (e.g., negligible or nonexistent) andthe MGT unit 400 is effectively in a neutral position.

FIG. 23 shows the rotor rings 444 positioned on either side of thestator ring 439 where the outer edges of the stator ring 439 and theinner edges of the rotor rings 444 are in near alignment. In thispositioning, the interaction of the flux between the rotor magnets 443and the stator windings is low, as is the force to turn the rotor rings444. If the MGT unit 400 is employed in a generator, this makes itfeasible, e.g., in hybrid vehicles, to generate recharge power to thebatteries while the vehicle is being operated under combustion power andto do so with no or minimal additional power from the combustion engine,operating essentially on waste inertial power from the moving vehicle.As the rotor rings 444 are moved from the neutral position to the edgeof stator alignment, the voltage generated when operating as a generatorat constant RPM increases exponentially from zero or near zero to thelow value achieved when the inner edges of the rotor rings 444 arealigned with the outer edges of the stator ring 439.

FIG. 24 shows the rotor rings 444 brought together within orsubstantially within coverage of the stator ring 439, e.g., with theirinner edges centered on the center plane of the stator ring 439. In thispositioning, the interaction of the flux between the rotor magnets 443and the stator windings may be at its maximum and the voltage generatedwhen operating as a generator can also be at its maximum. At any pointbetween where the inner edges of the rotor rings 444 are at the outeredges of the stator ring 439 and where the inner edges of the rotorrings 444 is at the center plane of the stator ring 439, the voltagegenerated is proportional to the distance of the inner rotor ring edgesfrom the outer stator ring edges to the center plane of the stator ring439, which may be the maximum value.

It is noted that while three distinct positions for the rotor rings 444relative to the stator ring 439 are described herein, the rotor rings444 and optionally the stator ring 439 can be repositioned at any numberof positions allowed by the components (e.g., slide bars, translatorbar, actuators, etc.) of the MGT unit 400. In this regard, the MGT unit400 can be magnetically focused with a high degree of precision tooptimize overall system efficiency, whether employed as a motor or agenerator.

FIGS. 25 through 36 show another embodiment of an MGT unit 500/systemthat employs variable torque magnetic focusing. The difference betweenthe embodiment shown in FIGS. 25 through 36 and the embodiment shown inFIGS. 16 through 24 lies in the method and manner of translating therotor rings 544 and possibly the stator ring 539 to reconfigure thecomponents to positions 1, 2 and 3 (described above) and any positionsin between. It is further contemplated that additional methods ofrepositioning the rotor rings 544 and possibly the stator ring 539 canbe employed without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

FIGS. 25 shows an embodiment of the MGT unit 500 having a housingincluding a cover 530 and end plates 520 (e.g., similar to those of theMGT unit 400 of FIGS. 16 through 24). FIGS. 26 and 27 show the MGT unit500 with the cover 530 removed and the stator ring 539 with itsrespective stator windings (coils 541) wrapped around its stator cores.The stator ring 539 can be supported by a stator support structure 540comprising plurality of (e.g., three or more) stator support bars 542that can be evenly spaced around the periphery of the stator ring 539extending between the two end plates 520, affixed to the end plates 520and the stator ring 539 to hold the stator in a fixed position, whichmay be near the center of MGT unit 500 with its center planeperpendicular to the axis of the axle 510, coincident with the centerplane of the rotor support structure 546 with its central axis collinearwith the central axis of the axle 510.

FIGS. 28 through 31 show various views of the sliding rotor supportstructure 546 with the rotor support structure 546 affixed to the axle510 with a plurality of (e.g., three or more linear slide rods 547) thatcan be evenly spaced around the periphery of the rotor support structure546 running through the inside edge of the rotor support structure 546parallel to the axle 510, rigidly affixed to the rotor support structure546 at equal distance from the central axis of the axle 510 with sliderod end plate rings 548 affixed to the ends of the linear slide rods547. The two rotor rings 544 are slidably affixed to the linear sliderods 547 by bushings or linear bearings (not shown) in the rotor rings544 allowing movement of the rotor rings 544 in the axial directiontowards or away from each other between the center plane of the rotorsupport structure 546 and the slide rod end plates 520. Permanentmagnets 543 are mounted around the periphery of each rotor ring 544,evenly spaced with alternating north and south poles facing radiallyoutward. The outer circumferential face of the rotor magnets 543 can bea constant distance from the central axis of the axle 510, providing asmall air gap between the circumferential face of the rotor magnets 543and the inner circumferential face of the stator ring 539 when thecenter plane of the stator (perpendicular to the rotor axle 510) and theinside edges of the rotor rings 544 are coplanar. The north and southpoles of the rotor magnets 543 on each rotor are affixed in the sameradial position around the periphery of each rotor ring 544 such thatwhen the rotor rings 544 are translated together the north pole magnets543 on the first rotor ring 544 are in the same radial position as thenorth pole magnets 543 on the second rotor ring 544, directly opposingone another.

FIGS. 32 through 36 show an embodiment of the rotor linear actuator 550.In this embodiment there is one rotor linear actuator 550 for each rotorring 544. In other embodiments there may be only one rotor linearactuator for both rotor rings 544 or there may be at least one linearactuator for the rotor rings 544 and at least one for the stator ring539. The rotor linear actuator 550 can include a stepper motor 552, adrive belt 553, a drive gear 554, two sets of planetary gears 556, ascrew actuator 551, and a planetary gear housing 555. The screw actuator551 is a hollow pipe threaded on its exterior surface for most of itslength. The screw actuator 551 fits around the axle 510 which runsthrough it, extending outwardly from the rotor support structure 546.The screw actuator 551 is rotationally affixed to the axle 510 bybushings or rotary bearings (not shown) on each end. The screw actuator551 threads mate on the end facing the rotor support structure 546 withmatching threads in a hole in the center of the rotor ring 544 such thatas the screw actuator 551 is turned relative to the axle 510 the rotorring 544 will translate in the axial direction in either directiondepending on whether the screw actuator 551 is turned clockwise orcounter clock wise. The screw actuator 551 is affixed on the end awayfrom the rotor support structure 546 to the sun gear of the inner set ofplanetary gears 558 closest to the rotor support structure 546. Thescrew actuator 551 and the first sun gear generally rotate with the axle510 turning the planetary gears which have common axles 510 with theplanetary gears on the outer set of planetary gears 557 whose sun gearis affixed to the rotor shaft and whose ring gear is affixed to theplanetary gear housing which in turn is affixed to the end plate 520.When the stepper motor 552 is activated by command from the computersystem, the drive belt 553 turns the ring gear on planetary set 556causing the screw actuator 551 to turn relative to the axis of the axle510, causing the rotor ring 544 to translate between positions 1, 2, and3 previously described herein (and any other positions) as selected bythe computer system based on sensor information and/or commands receivedthrough a user interface.

Example Implementations—Variable Stator Winding Configurations

Referring now to FIGS. 7 through 14, a stator configuration (e.g., forany of the stator rings described herein) can comprise a separatedcenter 3-phase wiring (e.g., as shown in FIG. 7). The 3-phase stator'scenter connections 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c are configured to link three phases(e.g., phases 1, 2, and 3) to one point when coupled together. The liveend of phase 1 is illustrated as A1, the live end of phase 2 isillustrated as B1, and the live end of phase 3 is illustrated as C1. Asshown in FIG. 7, the phases can be separated such that the centerconnections 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c are to be selectively connected (e.g.,ends 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c can be connected together or connected to other3-phase windings).

In some embodiments, a separated center 3-phase wiring including a2-wire configuration (e.g., as shown in FIG. 8). Phase 1, phase 2 andphase 3 for each of the two windings have separated center connections(e.g., center connections 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c for a first winding andcenter connections 2 a, 2 b and 2 c for a second winding). The live endof phase 1 is illustrated as A1 and A2 for each of the first and secondwindings, respectively. The live end of phase 2 is illustrated as B1 andB2 for each of the first and second windings, respectively. The live endof phase 3 is illustrated as C1 and C2 for each of the first and secondwindings, respectively. In this 2-wire scenario the winding A1 and A2are in parallel around the iron cores and end in the central connections1 a and 2 a likewise are B1 with B2, central connection 1 b with 2 blikewise are C1 with C2, central connection 1 c with 2 c.

In the 2-wire configuration there are parallel (Gear #4) and series(Gear #1) modes available. The individual winding sections whileoperating in parallel mode (Gear #4) can include connecting A1 to A2, B1to B2, C1 to C2, and the central connections 1 a, 1 b, 1 c, 2 a, 2 b and2 c can be connected together. The individual winding sections whileoperating in series mode (Gear #1) can include connecting 1 a to A2, 1 bto B2, 1 c to C2, and the central connections 2 a, 2 b and 2 c can beconnected together. In this configuration, each active winding sectioncarries half the voltage of the parallel mode (Gear #4) and ¼ of thecurrent found in the parallel mode configuration when serving as agenerator under constant power.

In another embodiment, a stator configuration can comprise a separatedcenter 3-phase wiring including a 4-wire configuration (e.g., as shownin FIG. 9). Phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3 for each of the four windingscan have separated center connections (e.g., center connections 1 a, 1b, and 1 c for a first winding, center connections 2 a, 2 b and 2 c fora second winding, center connections 3 a, 3 b, and 3 c for a thirdwinding, and center connections 4 a, 4 b and 4 c for a fourth winding).The live end of phase 1 is illustrated as A1, A2, A3 and A4 for each ofthe first, second, third, and fourth windings, respectively. The liveend of phase 2 is illustrated as B1, B2, B3 and B4 for each of thefirst, second, third, and fourth windings, respectively. The live end ofphase 3 is illustrated as C1, C2, C3 and C4 for each of the first,second, third, and fourth windings, respectively. In this 4-wirescenario the windings A1, A2, A3 and A4 are in parallel around the ironcores and end in the central connections 1 a, 2 a, 3 a and 4 a, likewiseare B1, B2, B3 with B4 ending in central connections 1 b, 2 b, 3 b with4 b, and likewise are C1, C2, C3 with C4 ending with central connection1 c, 2 c, 3 c with 4 c.

In the 4-wire configuration there are parallel (Gear #4),parallel/series (Gear #2), and series (Gear #1) modes available. Theindividual winding sections while operating in parallel mode (Gear #4)can include connecting A1, A2 and A3 to A4; B1, B2 and B3 to B4; C1, C2and C3 to C4, and the central connections 1 a, 2 a, 3 a, 4 a, 1 b, 2 b,3 b, 4 b, 1 c, 2 c, 3 c and 4 c can be connected together. Theindividual winding sections while operating in series/parallel mode(Gear #2) can include connecting A1 to A2; 1 a, 2 a, A3 and A4; B1 toB2; 1 b, 2 b, B3 and B4; C1 to C2; 1 c, 2 c, C3 and C4; 3 a, 4 a, 3 b, 4b, 3 c and 4 c. In this configuration (Gear #2), each active windingsection carries half the voltage of the parallel mode (Gear #4) and¼^(th) of the current found in the parallel mode (Gear #4)configuration. The individual winding sections while operating in seriesmode (Gear #1) can include connecting 1 a to A2, 2 a to A3, 3 a to A4, 1b to B2, 2 b to B3, 3 b to B4, 1 c to C2, 2 c to C3, 3 c to C4, and 4 a,4 b and 4 c together. In this configuration (Gear #1), each activewinding section carries one fourth the voltage of the parallel mode(Gear #4) and ⅛^(th) of the current found in the parallel modeconfiguration when serving as a generator under constant power.

In another embodiment, the stator configuration includes a separatedcenter 3-phase wiring including a 6-wire configuration (e.g., as shownin FIG. 10). Phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3 for each of the six windingscan have separated center connections (e.g., center connections 1 a, 1b, and 1 c for a first winding, center connections 2 a, 2 b and 2 c fora second winding, center connections 3 a, 3 b, and 3 c for a thirdwinding, center connections 4 a, 4 b and 4 c for a fourth winding,center connections 5 a, 5 b, and 5 c for a fifth winding, and centerconnections 6 a, 6 b and 6 c for a sixth winding). The live end of phase1 is illustrated as A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 for each of the first,second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth windings, respectively. The liveend of phase 2 is illustrated as B1, B2, B3, B4, B5 and B6 for each ofthe first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth windings,respectively. The live end of phase 3 is illustrated as C1, C2, C3, C4,C5 and C6 for each of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixthwindings, respectively. In this 6-wire scenario the winding A1, A2, A3,A4, A5 and A6 are in parallel around the iron cores and end in thecentral connections 1 a, 2 a, 3 a, 4 a, 5 a and 6 a, likewise are B1,B2, B3, B4, B5 with B6 ending in central connections 1 b, 2 b, 3 b, 4 b,5 b with 6 b, and likewise are C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 with C6 ending withcentral connection 1 c, 2 c, 3 c, 4 c, 5 c with 6 c.

In the 6-wire configuration there are parallel (Gear #4), firstparallel/series (Gear #3), second parallel/series (Gear #2), and series(Gear #1) modes available. The individual winding sections whileoperating in parallel mode (Gear #4, illustrated in FIG. 11) can includeconnecting A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, and A6 together, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, andB6 together, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, and C6 together, and the centralconnections 1 a, 1 b, 1 c, 2 a, 2 b, 2 c, 3 a, 3 b, 3 c, 4 a, 4 b, 4 c,5 a, 5 b, 5 c, 6 a, 6 b and 6 c can be connected together.

The individual winding sections while operating in series/parallel mode(Gear #3, illustrated in FIG. 12) can include connecting A1, A2 and A3together, 1 a, 2 a, 3 a, A4, A5 and A6 together, B1, B2 and B3 together,1 b, 2 b, 3 b, B4, B5 and B6 together, C1, C2 and C3 together, 1 c, 2 c,3 c, C4, C5 and C6 together, 4 a, 5 a, 6 a, 4 b, 5 b, 6 b, 4 c, 5 c and6 c together. In this configuration (Gear #3), each active windingsection carries half the voltage of the parallel mode (Gear #4) and¼^(th) of the current found in the parallel mode (Gear #4) configurationwhen serving as a generator under constant power.

The individual winding sections while operating in anotherseries/parallel mode (Gear #2, illustrated in FIG. 13) can includeconnecting: A1 to A2; 1 a, 2 a, A3 and A4 together; 3 a, 4 a, A5 and A6together; B1 to B2; 1 b, 2 b, B3 and B4 together; 3 b, 4 b, B5 and B6together; C1 to C2; 1 c, 2 c, C3 and C4 together; 3 c, 4 c, C5 and C6together; and 5 a, 6 a, 5 b, 6 b, 5 c and 6 c together. In thisconfiguration (Gear #2), each active winding section carries one thirdthe voltage of the parallel mode (Gear #4) and ⅙^(th) of the currentfound in the parallel mode (Gear #4) configuration when serving as agenerator under constant power.

The individual winding sections while operating in series mode (Gear #1,illustrated in FIG. 14) can include connecting: 1 a to A2; 2 a to A3; 3a to A4; 4 a to A5; 5 a, to A6; 1 b to B2; 2 b to B3; 3 b to B4; 4 b toB5; 5 b to B6; 1 c to C2; 2 c to C3; 3 c to C4; 4 c to C5; 5 c to C6;and 6 a, 6 b and 6 c together. In this configuration (Gear #1), eachactive winding section carries one sixth the voltage of the parallelmode (Gear #4) and 1/12^(th) of the current found in the parallel mode(Gear #4) configuration when serving as a generator under constantpower.

The amperages of six wire system of 20 ohm coils with a 100 voltpotential would be 49.8 amp turns in first gear (all series); 199.8 ampturns in second gear; 451.2 amp turns in third gear and 1800 amp turnsin fourth gear (all parallel). Subsequently the computer can cause awires or wire sets in the all parallel mode to be disconnected creatingadditional gears between third and fourth. For example, four allparallel wires is 800 amp turns, and five all parallel wires is 1250 ampturns. The foregoing voltages are provided for illustrative purposes,and those skilled in the art will appreciate that different voltages andadditional configurations can be provided to achieve any number ofgears. Furthermore, one or more electronic switches, in addition tobeing configured to connect the wires in the arrangements describedabove, can also be configured to disconnect one or more of thewires/windings, e.g., to implement a 4-wire configuration in a 6-wiresystem, and so forth, e.g., as shown in FIGS. 11B and 11C for a six wiresystem putting two intermediary gears between third and fourth gears.When switching from the third gear (Gear #3) to the fourth gear (Gear#4—all parallel), there may arise a need to not only remove one or twowires in each leg of the phases to create addition two or more gearsbetween third and fourth gear, but also using a pulse width modulationscheme on said wires to partially include them as a percentage toprovide a variable (e.g., infinitely variable) gearing between third andfourth gear.

In some embodiments, for a three-phase motor/generator, six (or four oreight or more) parallel, non-twisted wires are wound around the statorcores of each stator ring, in the same manner as the stator cores wouldbe wound with one wire. However, the six wires may have fewer wrapsaround each core before the available space is filled. In a three-phasemotor, the wires (sometimes referred to a legs or branches) of eachcircuit phase normally come together at a common point. According tovarious embodiments of this disclosure, six wires are disconnected orseparated at the common point and are run through a switching system(e.g., a plurality of logic controlled electronic switches) configuredto cause the wires to be in series, parallel or a combination thereofbut remain in three-phase configuration (as described above). The sameor a similar switching system can also be applied to connections betweenthe common stators in successive sets, in addition to the connectionsbetween the wires within the stators.

In some embodiments, a single MGT unit can have one or more rotor statorsets of two or more differently wound stators with one or two rotors perset and mechanical shifting to place the magnetic field of the rotor orrotors in contact with the electromagnetic field of one or the otherstator. In some embodiments, an electronic shifting capability isprovided within for each stator of any stator and rotor combinationincluding both: a MGT unit having multiple stators with a rotor for eachstator and no mechanical shifting; and an electric MGT unit with one ormore rotor/stator sets as described herein. In both cases, with multiplestators or multiple stator sets, similarly wired stators may be wiredtogether in parallel or series. When there are four stators, the statorsmay be configured as follows: all stators may be connected in parallel(Gear #4); two sets of stators may be connected in parallel and the setsconnected in series (Gear #3); or all stators may be connected in series(Gear #1). When there are six stators, the stators may be configured asfollows: all may be connected in parallel (Gear #4); there can be twosets of three stators wired in parallel and the sets connected in series(Gear #3); three sets of two stators wired in parallel and the setsconnected in series (Gear #2); or all sets connected in series (Gear#1).

When the stators are electrically connected to each other on a commonshaft or axle, the rotors may need to be identical and the stators mayneed to be identically wired and radially oriented or the voltages,torque and phase from each stator rotor combination can conflict. Insome embodiments, for example, in a system with six commonly wiredstators, all of the stators may need to be energized together. If one ormore are electrically disconnected, the motor/generator may experienceinefficiency from the induced drag when there is no neutral the MGT unithowever may have a neutral and successive stators or units may be placedin neutral and electrically disconnected. There are four levels oftorque/voltage when the connections between the stators are switched asabove described.

In embodiments of six rotor/stator sets with two or more stators perset, the total power of the electric motor/generator can be increased ordecreased by activating more or less rotor/stator sets within the unitsand further adjusted by shifting the rotor's magnetic field to the nextstator of different wiring and even further adjusted by adjusting thenumber of rotor rings in the rotating magnetic field as described above.In cases where there are two or more rotor stator sets in operation, theactive stator in each of the sets, the rotor magnets in each of thesets, and the stator wiring in each of the sets must be identically setand radially oriented, then additional adjustments in torque and voltagemay be made by switching the parallel/series connections between thestators as above described.

In some embodiments, the mechanical shifting in the rotor/stator sets isimplemented with the electronic shifting of the stator wiring, and whenthere are multiple stator sets, the sets are connected with the abilityto switch the connections between them from series to parallel and thenoted combinations thereof. For further clarification, when a second setof two or more stators is added to a first set of two or more stators,both sets must be in either series or parallel for the same voltage torun through both of them and generate the same torque for the commonshaft. As stated above, stators can run all in series or all in parallelor equal sets of two or three stators in parallel where the sets areconnected in series. When shifting between series and parallel thestators should all be shifted together, unless multiple controllers areused with separate dependently controlled) stator sets.

Moreover, when additional sets of stators are added to themotor/generator, the power capacity of the generator is increased andthe motor/generator will also have a different torque. This can be doneby having multiple rotor/stator sets that each have a neutral or idleposition, where the magnetic field of the rotor is not engaged with theelectro-magnetic field of any of the stators in the multi-setmotor/generator, and then as the power available or required increases,the stators in the sets are brought on line as needed. The powercapacity of the motor/generator can also be increased or decreased byshifting to differently wound stators within the sets and furtherfine-tuned by adjusting the number of rotor magnets engaged in the fluxfield at any one time. The ability to add or subtract active statorsfrom the motor/generator and change between stator windings, and to addrotors and focus the magnetic field of the rotors interacting with thestators, and to add and subtract magnets from the rotors, and thenfurther change the windings from series to parallel and combinationsthereof, provides the motor/generator with an ability to dynamicallyadapt to widely varying sources of energy. This serves to optimizemotor/generator configuration for improved electrical generation and toadapt to widely varying demands for motor power in hybrid vehicles, windpowered generators, and similar uses.

The MGT units as described herein can have modular electricalconnections comprising standard electrical connectors that can bemodified to be attached to the said modular end caps as to electricallyconnect multiple MGT units together as one unit. The MGT units asdescribed herein can also have power switching transistors for thegenerator mode also comprising standard 3-phase motor control invertorsfor various motor modes (as described above) utilizing both variablefrequency and pulse width modulation schemes for motor functions. Inembodiments, power switching transistors are in a configuration where a15-phase output in generator mode comprises separate output transistorsfor each of the 15 phases, where the output frequency can be selectedfrom the 15 phases and adjusted independent of the rotor RPM to buildthe new frequency as minimum RPM can support a maximum frequencydesired.

The MGT units as described herein can have electronic sensors such asHall Effect, optical or other resolving sensors attached to the rotorthat can calculate and report the RPM, direction and actual rotationalposition of the rotor or multiple rotor assemblies to the control unit.The motor/generators can have controls and a user interface comprising acomputer whereby the RPM, direction, acceleration, torque, generatormode, coast mode, motor mode and stator multiple wire series/parallelconfigurations are calculated and adjusted according to the user presetparameters and other input devices such as wind speed indicators, brakedevices, accelerator devices, failsafe devices, and other input devices.

In some embodiments, the stator ring(s) or rotor ring(s) for each setare radially offset from each other by the number of sets divided by 360degrees and the opposing stator sets or rotors are radially alignedwhere each set of 3-phase windings produces a sine power curve that isoffset from the adjacent power curve by the number of degrees that thestators or rotors are radially offset where the output frequency of themultiple phases can be selected from the multiple phases and adjustedindependent of the rotor RPM to build a new frequency so long as theminimum RPM can be maintained.

In implementations, the electronically controlled switches areconfigured to connect the two or more non-twisted wires of each phaseall in parallel, producing a first torque/speed when the motor/generatoris in the star or Wye wired configuration and a second torque/speed whenthe motor/generator is in the Delta wired configuration.

In implementations, the electronically controlled switches areconfigured to connect the two or more non-twisted wires of each phaseall in series, producing a third torque/speed when the motor/generatoris in the start or Wye wired configuration and a fourth torque/speedwhen the motor/generator is in the Delta wired configuration.

In implementations, the two or more non-twisted wires include multiplesets of two wires, wherein the electronically controlled switches areconfigured to connect the two wires of each set in parallel and areconfigured to connect the multiple sets in series with one another,producing a fifth torque/speed when the motor/generator is in the startor Wye wired configuration and a sixth torque/speed when themotor/generator is in the Delta wired configuration, different from allparallel and all series configurations of the two or more non-twistedwires.

In implementations, the two or more non-twisted wires include multiplesets of three wires, wherein the electronically controlled switches areconfigured to connect the three wires of each set in parallel and areconfigured to connect the multiple sets in series with one another,producing a seventh torque/speed when the motor/generator is in thestart or Wye wired configuration and an eighth torque/speed when themotor/generator is in the Delta wired configuration, different from allparallel and all series configurations of the two or more non-twistedwires.

In implementations, the two or more non-twisted wires include multiplesets of four wires, wherein the electronically controlled switches areconfigured to connect the four wires of each set in parallel and areconfigured to connect the multiple sets in series with one another,producing a ninth torque/speed when the motor/generator is in the startor Wye wired configuration and an tenth torque/speed when themotor/generator is in the Delta wired configuration, different from allparallel and all series configurations of the two or more non-twistedwires.

In implementations, the electronically controlled switches areconfigured to disconnect at least one wire of the two or morenon-twisted wires from a series or parallel configuration withoutelectric current flowing through the at least one disconnected wire butthrough the remaining wires connected in the series or parallelconfiguration, where each disconnected wire in a phase decreases thenumber of amp turns in each of the cores and produces a differenttorque/speed than if all wires were connected in the series or parallelconfiguration.

In implementations, a center plane of the stator cores and a rotationalplane of the rotor magnets, may be offset from one another in an axialdirection in varying controlled amounts, wherein increasing the distancebetween the two planes from a coplanar position decreases an amount ofback electromotive force produced by the magnets on the cores, providinga means to balance the gauss created in the windings by the switchingfrom parallel to series and/or Wye to Delta wired configuration with thegauss created by the permanent magnets to achieve energy efficiency ateach setting electronically controlled switches.

In implementations, the stator core windings are multi-pole and thepoles in each phase are equally spaced around the periphery of thestator, where each pole core winding is terminated on both ends byrespective ones of the electronically controlled switches so that thepoles in a phase winding can be connected in series or parallel, or insets of two or more poles connected in parallel with the sets connectedto each other in series.

In implementations, the one or more stators comprise at least a firststator ring and a second stator ring, wherein the respective statorwindings of the first stator ring and the second stator ring are spacedapart in an axial direction and cored and/or wound differently to createtwo distinct ranges of performance in torque/speed and amps/volts, eachof the two distinct ranges of performance corresponding to an alignmentof the rotor with a selected one of the first and second stator rings.

In implementations, the translation of the stator ring(s) and/or therotor ring(s) is controlled by commands from a computer system that canaccept information from various torque, speed, volt, amp, heat,proximity and other input sensors and/or human activated control devices(e.g., a computer interface device). The computer system can beconfigured to perform one or more algorithms to control the movement ofthe stator ring(s) and/or rotor ring(s) from or to positions 1, 2, 3,and other positions in between to affect the magnetic interactionbetween the stator ring(s) and the rotor ring(s) to change thespeed/torque and volt/amp ratios of the, MGT unit causing it to performas a transmission.

In implementations, the stator ring and rotor ring may be at least oneof, laminated iron plates, powdered iron and resin or any other materialknown in the art of electric motors or generators. The permanent magnetsalong the periphery of the rotor ring may be comprised of neodymium ironboron (NdFeB) or material of comparable or better magnetic strengthand/or coercivity composition of magnets or magnet with increasedmagnetic strength and/or coercivity.

In implementations, any one or more of the two or more non-twistedparallel wires that are connected in series, in either WYE or Deltaconfigurations, may be disconnected from the series with no electriccurrent flowing through it or them but through the remaining wiresconnected in the series. Where each of the wires disconnected in thephase decreases the number of amp turns in each of the cores andproduces a different torque/speed and volt/amp ratio for each of thewires disconnected than if all were included in the series winding. Forexample, FIGS. 11B and 11C show examples where a portion of thenon-twisted parallel wires in each phase leg are connected in parallel,and one or more wires are disconnected from the connected portion ofwires.

In implementations, the multiple wires in the core phase windings may beof different diameter having different amp carrying capacities andresistance enabling the implementation of different amp and amp/turncombinations in the core windings as the switching is conducted.

In implementations, the stator core windings are multi-pole, and thepoles in each phase are spaced around the periphery of the stator whereeach pole core winding is terminated on both ends at electronicallycontrolled switches so that the poles in a phase winding can beconnected in series or parallel or in sets of two or more polesconnected in parallel and the sets connected to each other in series andso that the coils may be independently energized.

In some embodiments, the stator rings are dual wound. For example, FIG.37A illustrates a split stator that is single wound, and FIG. 37Billustrates a split stator that is dual wound. Referring to FIG. 37A,this figure shows connections for a three phase stator in normal mode asone single stator. The stator ring shown in FIG. 37A has 42 separatecoils (14 three phase sets). The center tap of each phase namely A, Band C are connected to corresponding phase where all the A connectionsare together, all the B connections are together and all the Cconnections are together. The A center tap connections are for the Phase1 or L1 inputs from the controller. The B center tap connections are forthe Phase 2 or L2 inputs from the controller. The C center tapconnections are for the Phase 3 or L3 inputs from the controller.Referring now to FIG. 37B, this figure shows the connections for a threephase stator in split mode as a double stator. For example, the statorring in FIG. 37B is configured with a first set of stator coils in halfas many coil spaces as are available in the stator ring, alternatelyspaced around the ring. The first set of stator coils is served by afirst controller. The stator ring is further configured with a secondset of stator coils in a remaining half of the coil spaces of the statorring. The second set of stator coils is served by a second controller. Acommon computer processor is configured to control the first controllerand the first set of stator coils and the second controller and thesecond set of stator coils independent of one another. In an embodimentshown in FIG. 37B, the stator ring has 42 separate coils (two separateinstances of 7 three phase sets). They are evenly spaced and balancedaround the periphery of the stator frame. The center tap of each phasenamely A, B and C are connected to corresponding phase where all the Aconnections are together, all the B connections are together and all theC connections are together. The center tap of each phase namely X, Y andZ are also connected to corresponding phase where all the X connectionsare together, all the Y connections are together and all the Zconnections are together. The A center tap connections are for the Phase1 or L1 inputs from the controller. The B center tap connections are forthe Phase 2 or L2 inputs from the controller. The C center tapconnections are for the Phase 3 or L3 inputs from the controller. The Xcenter tap connections are for the Phase 1 or T1 inputs from thecontroller. The Y center tap connections are for the Phase 2 or T2inputs from the controller, The Z center tap connections are for thePhase 3 or T3 inputs from the controller. The configuration shown inFIG. 37B enables utilization of two controllers at the same time withina single stator frame, thereby allowing series/parallel internalswitching while one controller (i.e., a controller connected to wiresthat are not being reconfigured) is still in operation.

The use of switched stator windings has been discussed, where the statorcoils are wound with multiple wires that could be switched from being inall series, all parallel or a combination thereof in either the WYE orthe Delta configuration. Some problems that have been encountered arethe following. There may be a loss of torque during the time interval ofthe switching, causing a bump or jerk in the vehicle being propelled.There is no way to adjust or weaken the magnetic field or a permanentmagnet motor. More than two wires while possible are not alwayspractical.

The inventors have found that not only is there a loss of torque in theswitching interval but the speed/torque ratio difference between allseries and all parallel is quite severe as is switching between theDelta and WYE configuration. This large difference in torque and speedalso causes a bump or sudden lurch. In some implementations of thisdisclosure (e.g., FIGS. 1 through 6), the MGT unit has two or moremultiple wire wound stator rings and one permanent magnet rotor ring.The stator rings and the rotor ring can be repositioned while the statorwindings are electronically reconfigured to create a synergisticrelationship, whereby the MGT unit can be electrically shifted from onegear to the next and also mechanically shifted to smooth the transitionbetween gears. For example, the stator windings of the first stator ringcan be configured in a first gear, and the stator windings of the secondstator ring can be configured in a second gear. The rotor ring can bemoved from a first position (engaging the first stator ring) to a secondposition (engaging the second stator ring) to provide a smooth shiftfrom the first gear to the second gear. Similarly, the stator windingsof the first stator ring can be switched into a third gear, and therotor ring can be brought back into a position engaging the first statorring to provide a smooth shift from the second gear to the third gear.This process can be repeated to smoothly transition from one gear to thenext in either direction (e.g., going up gears or going down).

In some embodiments, the switching of the wires and the stator poles iscontrolled by the computer system that can accept information fromvarious torque, speed, volt, amp, heat, proximity and other inputsensors and/or human activated control devices (e.g., a computerinterface device). The computer system may be configured to process theinformation by performing one or more algorithms to change thespeed/torque and volt/amp ratios of an MGT unit causing it to perform asa transmission.

In some embodiments, a rotor assembly includes two rotor rings havingrespective sets permanent magnets (e.g., as described herein and shownin FIGS. 16 through 24 or FIGS. 25 through 36), where both of the rotorrings are slidably coupled to their longitudinal rotor supportstructure, and where they are moved or translated closer together orfurther apart by a linear motion device (e.g., linear actuator), such asset screw powered by stepper motors located within cavities in the rotorrings, solenoids, hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders, or the like, underthe control of the computer system. These units may also have twostators and three rotors two rotors engaged with any one stator at atime switching back and forth between stators to accomplish the smoothtransition in switching between wiring configurations as abovedescribed.

In some attempted configurations to implement switching between allparallel, all series Delta and Y connections, the process has beenfrustrated by the generally unacceptable interruption of power, largepower surges and jolts to the mechanical process during and immediatelyfollowing the short time interval necessary to complete the switch fromone wiring configuration to another and has been further limited toattempts to create multi-speed electric motors.

This disclosure eliminates the interruption, power surge and joltproblems and further concentrates on obtaining the most efficient energyconsumption/production for each range of speed and torque under whichthe motor or generator will be used. Current electric motor art createshighly efficient motor/generators at the constant speeds and torquesettings for which they were designed. This disclosure creates multiplehighly efficient points over a much wider speed/torque spectrum andallows the motor/generator to adjust or fine tune the magnetic fieldbetween the stator coils and the rotor magnets to meet (or nearly meet)the optimum amp and torque requirements of a motor or generatoremploying the MGT unit and to optimize efficiency at any time underwidely variable conditions such as a motor/generator on a bus ordelivery truck or a generator on a wind mill under widely varying windconditions, or any other motor/generator deployment with variabletorque/speed requirements.

Example Implementations—MGT Unit and/or System Controls

An MGT unit, such as any of those described herein, including some orall of its components, can operate under computer control. For example,FIG. 15 shows a control system 100 for operating one or more MGT units.An MGT unit computer system 102 can be configured to interface with acontroller 120 (e.g., H-bridge controller, inverter, and/or converter)for controlling voltage, frequency, and/or amperage supplied to or fromthe stator coils, the actuator(s) 110 (e.g., linear stator and/or rotoractuator(s)), electronic switches 112 for reconfiguring the statorwindings into Star/WYE and Delta configurations and parallel and seriesconfigurations and combinations as described herein, sensor(s) 116(e.g., Hall effect or optical sensors to detect rotational frequency(RPM), voltage sensors, current sensors, frequency sensors, etc.),brake/throttle controls 118, and so forth. In some embodiments, the MGTunit includes the computer system 102. In other embodiments, thecomputer system 102 can be communicatively coupled to the MGT unit. Aprocessor 104 can be included with or in the computer system 102 tocontrol the components and functions of the MGT unit(s) described hereinusing software, firmware, hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manualprocessing, or a combination thereof. The terms “computer system,”“functionality,” “service,” and “logic” as used herein generallyrepresent software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of software,firmware, or hardware in conjunction with controlling the MGT unit. Inthe case of a software implementation, the module, functionality, orlogic represents program code (e.g., algorithms embodied in anon-transitory computer readable medium) that performs specified taskswhen executed on a processor (e.g., central processing unit (CPU) orCPUs). The program code can be stored in one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable memory devices or media (e.g., internal memory and/orone or more tangible media), and so on. For example, memory may includebut is not limited to volatile memory, non-volatile memory, Flashmemory, SRAM, DRAM, RAM and ROM. The structures, functions, approaches,and techniques described herein can be implemented on a variety ofcommercial computing platforms having a variety of processors.

The computer system 102 can include a processor 104, a memory 106, and acommunications interface 108. The processor 104 provides processingfunctionality for at least the computer system 102 and can include anynumber of processors, micro-controllers, circuitry, field programmablegate array (FPGA) or other processing systems, and resident or externalmemory for storing data, executable code, and other information accessedor generated by the computer system 102. The processor 104 can executeone or more software programs embodied in a non-transitory computerreadable medium that implement techniques described herein. Theprocessor 104 is not limited by the materials from which it is formed orthe processing mechanisms employed therein and, as such, can beimplemented via semiconductor(s) and/or transistors using electronicintegrated circuit (IC) components), and so forth.

The computer system 102 may include a memory 106 (e.g., Flash memory,RAM, SRAM, DRAM, ROM, etc.). The memory 106 can be an example oftangible, computer-readable storage medium that provides storagefunctionality to store various data and or program code associated withoperation of the computer system 102, such as software programs and/orcode segments, or other data to instruct the processor 104, and possiblyother components of the MGT unit, to perform the functionality describedherein. Thus, the memory 106 can store data, such as a program ofinstructions for operating the MGT unit (including its components), andso forth. It should be noted that while a single memory 106 isdescribed, a wide variety of types and combinations of memory (e.g.,tangible, non-transitory memory) can be employed. The memory 106 can beintegral with the processor 104, can comprise stand-alone memory, or canbe a combination of both.

Some examples of the memory 106 can include removable and non-removablememory components, such as random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), flash memory (e.g., a secure digital (SD) memory card, a mini-SDmemory card, and/or a micro-SD memory card), magnetic memory, opticalmemory, universal serial bus (USB) memory devices, hard disk memory,external memory, and so forth. In implementations, the computer system102 and/or the memory 106 can include removable integrated circuit card(ICC) memory, such as memory provided by a subscriber identity module(SIM) card, a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) card, auniversal integrated circuit card (UICC), and so on.

The computer system 102 may include a. communications interface 108. Thecommunications interface 108 can be operatively configured tocommunicate with components of the MGT unit. For example, thecommunications interface 108 can be configured to transmit data forstorage in the MGT unit, retrieve data from storage in the MGT unit, andso forth. The communications interface 108 can also be communicativelycoupled with the processor 104 to facilitate data transfer betweencomponents of the MGT unit and the processor 104 (e.g., forcommunicating inputs to the processor 104 received from a devicecommunicatively coupled with the MGT unit/computer system 102). Itshould be noted that while the communications interface 108 is describedas a component of computer system 102, one or more components of thecommunications interface 108 can be implemented as external componentscommunicatively coupled to the MGT unit via a wired and/or wirelessconnection. The MGT unit can also include and/or connect to one or moreinput/output (I/O! devices (e.g., via the communications interface 108),such as a display, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a keyboard, amicrophone (e.g., for voice commands) and so on.

The communications interface 108 and/or the processor 104 can beconfigured to communicate with a variety of different networks, such asa wide-area cellular telephone network, such as a cellular network, a 3Gcellular network, a 4G cellular network, or a global system for mobilecommunications (GSM) network; a wireless computer communicationsnetwork, such as a WiFi network (e.g., a wireless local area network(WLAN) operated using IEEE 802.11 network standards); an ad-hoc wirelessnetwork, an internet; the Internet; a wide area network (WAN); a localarea network (LAN); a personal area network (PAN) (e.g., a wirelesspersonal area network (WPAN) operated using IEEE 802.15 networkstandards); a public telephone network; an extranet; an intranet; and soon. However, this list is provided by way of example only and is notmeant to limit the present disclosure. Further, the communicationsinterface 108 can be configured to communicate with a single network ormultiple networks across different access points. In a specificembodiment, a communications interface 108 can transmit information fromthe computer system 102 to an external device (e.g., a cell phone, acomputer connected to a WiFi network, cloud storage, etc.). In anotherspecific embodiment, a communications interface 108 can receiveinformation from an external device (e.g., a cell phone, a computerconnected to a WiFi network, cloud storage, etc.).

The controller 120 is configured to control the voltage, amperage,and/or frequency of signals suppled to (in the case of a motor) or from(in the case of a generator) stator coils 114 (e.g., signal throughwires of stator coils in any of FIGS. 1 through 14 and 16 through 36).For example, the controller 120 may be configured to adjust the voltage,amperage, and/or frequency based on an input signal from thebrake/throttle 118 and/or sensor(s) 116 (e.g., based on detected RPM orradial position of rotor rings). The computer system 102 is configuredto monitor the controller 120 and possibly other data sources (e.g.,sensor(s) 116 for RPM readings, brake/throttle 118 inputs, and soforth). Based on information received from these data sources, thecomputer system 102 can operate the actuators 110, electronic switches112, and the controller 120. For example, when the controller 120 hasreached a predetermined operating threshold (e.g., minimum/maximumvoltage, amperage, frequency, etc.), the computer system 102 may beconfigured to cause the controller 120 to be placed in a neutral statewhile the computer system 102 causes the actuators 110 and/or electronicswitches 112 to reconfigure the stator and/or rotor rings (as describedwith regard to any of FIGS. 1 through 14 and 16 through 36). Thecomputer system 102 is configured to then cause the controller 120 toresume transmission to or from the stator coils at an amperage, voltage,and/or frequency that provides approximately the same number ofamp-turns (At) as was provided prior to the mechanical and/or electricalreconfiguration of the rotor and/or stator rings. The controller 120 canthen continue operation until another operating threshold is reached,where the computer system 102 can then repeat the same reconfigurationand reprogramming of the MGT unit components.

The computer system 102 can be configured to cause the electronicswitches 112 to switch a wiring or phase configuration of the statorcoils at least partially based upon the rotational frequency (e.g., RPM)of the first and second rotor rings. For example, the computer system102 can control the electronic switches 112 and/or the actuators 110 tochange electrical and/or mechanical configurations of the system basedon the rotational frequency or other information indicative of thesystem power requirements. The computer system 102 can implement aplurality of gears (i.e., different mechanical and/or electricalconfigurations) to successively increase or decrease amp-turncapacities, thereby increasing or decreasing a corresponding strength ofa magnetic field of the stator coils, as a demand for power on the MGTunit/system increases or decreases. The computer system can beconfigured to cause the electronic switches 112 to connect the multipleparallel non-twisted wires of the stator coils in all series, allparallel, or in a combination of series and parallel. The computersystem 102 can also be configured to cause the electronic switches 112to connect a portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires in allseries, all parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel andconfigured to cause the electronic switches 112 to disconnect one ormore wires from the portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires(e.g., see FIGS. 11B and 11C). The computer system 102 can be configuredto cause the electronic switches 112 to switch the phase wiring betweenthe star (Y) configuration and the Delta configuration and configured toconnect the multiple parallel non-twisted wires in all series, allparallel, or in a combination of series and parallel. The computersystem 102 can be configured to cause the electronic switches 112 toswitch the phase wiring between the star (Y) configuration and the Deltaconfiguration, configured to cause the electronic switches 112 toconnect a portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires in allseries, all parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel, andconfigured to cause the electronic switches 112 to disconnect one ormore wires from the portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires.In an implementation such as shown in FIGS. 16 through 24 or FIGS. 25through 36, the computer system 102 can be configured cause theactuator(s) to: place the first rotor ring and the second rotor ring ina first position on either side of the center plane of the stator ringwhere the distance from the center plane of the stator ring to the innersurface of each rotor ring; place the first rotor ring and the secondrotor ring in a second position where the inner surfaces of the firstand second rotor rings are coplanar with respective outer surfaces ofthe stator ring, on either end of the stator ring; place the first rotorring and the second rotor ring in a third position where the innersurfaces of the first and second rotor rings are coplanar with thecenter plane of the stator; and place the first rotor ring and thesecond rotor ring at one or more positions other than the first, second,and third positions. These are some examples of the electrical and/ormechanical configurations that can be affected by the computer system102 in order to change the magnetic field strengths and interactions inthe MGT unit/system. Any combination of the foregoing operations can beimplemented by the MGT control system 100 to improve/optimize efficiencyof the overall system.

In embodiments, an MGT system can include another MGT system computerthat can also include a processor, a memory, and a communicationsinterface, such as those described herein. The MGT system computer canbe in communication with the MGT unit including computer system 102 andpossibly one or more additional MGT units and their respective computersystems to provide central processing for the MGT system. The MGT systemcomputer can be configured to receive operator commands and parameterssuch as RPM, speed, torque parameters, and so forth, and the MGT systemcomputer can control the MGT units based on the received information tocontrol the stator and/or rotor positioning and stator winding and/orphase wiring configurations in order to achieve desired (e.g., optimalor near optimal) system requirements,

Generally, any of the functions described herein can be implementedusing hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry such as integratedcircuits), software, firmware, manual processing, or a combinationthereof. Thus, the blocks discussed in the above disclosure generallyrepresent hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry such as integratedcircuits), software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the instanceof a hardware configuration, the various blocks discussed in the abovedisclosure may be implemented as integrated circuits along with otherfunctionality. Such integrated circuits may include all of the functionsof a given block, system, or circuit, or a portion of the functions ofthe block, system, or circuit. Further, elements of the blocks, systems,or circuits may be implemented across multiple integrated circuits. Suchintegrated circuits may comprise various integrated circuits, including,but not necessarily limited to: a monolithic integrated circuit, a flipchip integrated circuit, a multichip module integrated circuit, and/or amixed signal integrated circuit. In the instance of a softwareimplementation, the various blocks discussed in the above disclosurerepresent executable instructions (e.g., program code) that performspecified tasks when executed on a processor. These executableinstructions can be stored in one or more tangible computer readablemedia. In some such instances, the entire system, block, or circuit maybe implemented using its software or firmware equivalent. in otherinstances, one part of a given system, block, or circuit may beimplemented in software or firmware, while other parts are implementedin hardware.

Various embodiments of MGT units have been described herein. Such MGTunits can be implemented in a variety of power generation and powermanagement applications. For example, the MGT units described herein canbe implemented in generation devices (e.g., windmills, hydropowergenerators, and the like) and vehicles or motor-driven devices withmultiple power sources, such as hybrid vehicles (e.g., cars,motorcycles, etc.), hybrid marine vessels, hybrid airplanes, and soforth. Some example applications are discussed below.

Example Implementations—Wind Power Generation System

In an example application where an MGT unit as described herein isimplemented in a windmill or wind turbine, an operating scenario canstart with no wind at the wind turbine and the stator ring(s) and rotorring(s) in the inactive “stopped” condition. In this scenario, anactuator has moved the stator ring(s) and/or rotor rings) to a positionwhere the stator windings are disengaged from the magnetic field of therotor magnets. As the wind speed starts to increase, a sensor canmeasure the RPM and “shift” or move the stator ring(s) and/or rotorring(s) from the neutral mode into a position where the magnetic fieldof the rotor magnets engages the least amount of stator windings and is100% parallel requiring the least amount of torque, allowing rotation ofthe windmill to begin at very low wind speeds and generate electricitymuch sooner than conventional generators can “startup”. The computersystem can collect data from wind speed sensors and the rotational speedof the windmill. As the wind speed increases, the computer system canshift the MGT unit from Gear #1, 100% series to Gear #2, three sets oftwo parallel wires connected in series, and so on to Gears #3 and #4 andso forth (and possibly intermediate gears), increasing the torquerequired to turn the windmill blades until either a preset rotationalspeed is achieved or the resisting torque of the stator/rotor set isequal to the power of the wind and the wind mill blades are turning at aconstant speed.

As the computer system monitors the wind speed and power available fromthe wind it can engage the actuators of 1, 2, 3 or more stator/rotorsets to match the power of the wind concurrently shifting each of thestator/rotor sets through their various gears and stators/rotors asabove described until equilibrium in the rotational speed of thewindmill blades is achieved and the power of the wind is matched with anoptimum or nearly optimum generating capacity of the wind powergenerator and maintaining needed line voltage. As the wind speedincreases and it is desired to bring additional stator sets online, sayfrom three sets to four sets, the computer can determine what gear thefour sets can be in and what stator activated, then momentarilyelectrically disconnect the three sets, place the four sets in the newconfiguration and electrically reconnect the four sets to beconcurrently shifted with the same voltage emanating from each statorset. Final adjustments and fine tuning is achieved by fine adjustment ofthe alignment of the stators with the rotor in the sets. This alsoapplies when minor adjustments are required to accommodate minorvariations in the wind speed.

When the wind velocity subsides and the number of stator sets on line isto be decreased from four to three, the last stator to come on line iselectrically disconnected, its stator repositioned to neutral and thethree remaining stator sets adjusted to match the wind power then beinggenerated by the windmill. In this manner systems and techniques inaccordance with the present disclosure can accurately, swiftly andefficiently balance the power output of the motor generator with theavailable wind speed at levels of wind speed and produce generatedelectric power from the wind at high efficiency rate. Generally, thetotal number of stator/rotor sets in the motor/generator in full seriessetting acting together can correspond to the maximum structural andmechanical capabilities of the wind mill and its blades. At the point ofmaximum capacity as with some generators it can automatically shut down.But unlike generators that have a narrow band of wind speeds where theyoperate efficiently, techniques in accordance with the presentdisclosure can extract increased power from the wind at high efficiencythroughout the entire range of wind speeds up to the structural capacityof the wind mill. When the wind speed starts to slow down and the outputvoltage drops, the unit can switch down to the next stator-wiring modeto increase the voltage/power collection. When the wind speed drops to avery slow condition, and although not much power is generated, the unitcan still capture this and help with the annual wind turbine output forgreater overall machine efficiency where conventional generators mayhave to shut down.

Another operational function can be described in a larger scaled upversion as in megawatt sized wind turbines. This scenario can behave thesame as in the small wind example but the configuration of the generatorcan be much larger, may have as many as 12 or more stator/rotor sets ina 3-phase configuration to enable a smooth transition in RPM changes doto highly variable wind. The stator engagement process can also be thesame or similar, with the exception of extra user controls, sensors forpower grid control and monitoring systems to sense the load and adjustto customer demand.

Another feature of this disclosure is the addition of largerstator/rotor sets and the ability to offset each of the stator/rotorsets rotationally by a few degrees as to make the number of stator androtor section equal the evenly spaced out rotational offsets. This canhelp with generator “cogging” and enable a design of this disclosurewhereby the multiple stator windings can be controlled to have anonboard insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) select the differenthigh and low voltage points and using pulse width modulation (PWM)schemes, build and create a 3-phase sine wave at a set frequency of 60hz. When sensing RPM changes and fluctuations, the controls can adjustthe stator winding section to keep and maintain this frequency even whenmoderate RPM changes are noticed. This is a solution for a variablerotational power source and a constant frequency generated output for alocal grid or emergency power source without conversion losses due toAC-to-DC and large inverter systems power consumption. To understandthis process, an example of a large stator set of multiple pole 3-phasewinding and 12 stator and rotor sets is provided. In this example, thestator sets are aligned with each other but the rotor sets arerotationally offset by 1/12^(th) of the multiple pole rotational angle.This can provide 12 separate 3-phase outputs equally spaced inoscillation offset. The computer system can then take the current RPM,acceleration, load, back EMF (electromagnetic force), output frequencyand target frequency and use the PWM switching IGBT's to select upcomingpower potentials from the multiple phases and produce the targetfrequency from the high and low points of the generated multiple phases,possibly regardless of the source RPM (e.g., as long as the RPM issufficient to maintain the target voltage and power output). The samelinear actuation of the stator sections can regulate the torque andchanging wind speed rotor RPM's while producing efficient power for theconditions of gusts and very low wind speed plus conditions in between.

The disclosure's operational function in the application of otherrenewable energy sources such as tidal and wave generation machines canutilize this same variability in RPM to increase efficiency where thesource is intermittent and unreliable, for example, where wave andpossible tidal generation machines may also turn a generator onedirection and then immediately change rotational direction and continueto generate power efficiently. This disclosure has the ability to addadditional rotor/stator set to increase and/or decrease the powercapacity and then fine-tune the output with the stator and/or rotorlinear movement to coincide with the gradual oscillating output powersource and direction changes and further adjust the volt/amp ratios toincrease the efficiency of the unit to match the variable input at aninstant of time, by switching between stators and parallel or serieswinding.

Example Implementations—Hybrid Vehicle Propulsion System

FIG. 38 shows an implementation of the MGT unit in a hybrid vehicle(e.g., automobile, boat, or other transportation vehicle) where operatorinput 600 is supplied to the computer system 601 by a conventionalvehicle component, such as a throttle, brake pedal, ignition switch,forward and reverse lever, or the like. An advantage of the MGT unit isthat it has a neutral and many combinations of speed and power betweenneutral and full power and does not require a clutch interconnection 606between it and the combustion engine 603 and is its own transmission.Also multiple MGT units may be joined together to greatly increase theavailable power as is shown in FIG. 38 (e.g., MGT units 604 and 605).

When the vehicle is operating under combustion power only, both MGTunits 604 and 605 can be placed in neutral and the vehicle driven as anyother vehicle on the road today except that either or both MGT units 604and/or 605 may have their rotors moved from position 1 (neutral) toposition 2 (e.g., as shown in FIG. 23) where trickle power is generatedfor recharging the batteries over long highway road trips and negligiblepower is taken from the combustion engine 603. If a full charge isneeded more quickly, the rotor rings in MGT units 604 and/or MGT unit605 may be advanced towards position 3 (e.g., as shown in FIG. 24) basedon one or more commands from a computer system 601 (e.g., such as theMGT unit computer system 102 and/or MGT system computer describedherein), where the need for battery reserves are balanced against theexpense and availability of increased combustion fuel consumption andoperator requirements/input. Also when under combustion power as theoperator applies pressure to the brake pedal, the rotor rings in one orboth MGT units 604 and 605 advance quickly towards position 3 generatingelectricity to recharge the batteries while applying braking force tothe drive shaft commensurate with the amount of pressure applied to thebrake pedal by the operator to stop the vehicle. This feature of the MGTsurpasses any similar application in a hybrid electric vehicle by virtueof the fact that the permanent magnets in the MGT rotors may be largerthan would be used in a conventional electric motor since theinteraction of the magnetic field between the rotors and the stator maybe varied between 0 and maximum value utilizing lower values whenoperated as a motor and higher in some cases when operated as a brakegenerating electricity. Also when the brakes are applied at high speed asignificant amount of electricity could be generated in a short periodof time and exceed the amperage capacity of the stator coil wires. Whenthis occurs in the MGT units 604 and 605 their stator coils are switchedto all parallel or a combination of series and parallel that willaccommodate the sudden amperage increase. This is not possible in anyconventional electric motor/generator.

In some applications, such as rapid transit, it may be desirable to havethe combustion engine 603 providing power to the first MGT unit 604acting as a generator which would be supplying power to charge thebattery bank 602 and the second MGT unit 605 providing mechanical powerto the drive wheels of the train. In such cases a clutch 606 would beinstalled between MGT units 604 and 605. MGT unit 604 serves as thegenerator and MGT unit 605 serves as the propulsion unit where at anypoint in time all three including the combustion engine 603 could beproviding mechanical power to the drive shaft 607 to the drive wheelsand at any point in time both units (MGT unit 604 and MGT unit 605)could be generating electricity to charge the batteries 602 whilefurnishing braking energy to stop the vehicle (e.g., a train).

In some applications, a hybrid vehicle may be equipped with a combustionengine that is very economical to operate but only of sufficient powerto propel the vehicle at slow speed on level ground or higher speed onthe interstate highway but insufficient for rapid acceleration or hillclimbing. In such an application, the MGT unit is ideal in that it has aneutral and will draw no power when the combustion engine is operatingin its most economical mode, but when stressed by the terrain or byadditional pressure on the accelerator by the operator the centralprocessor will activate one or more MGT units and move their rotors andswitch their stator wires to supplement the power of the combustionengine with sufficient electromechanical power to meet the conditions orcircumstances at hand. This same vehicle would also have the samebattery recharge and braking features described above.

When the MGT units are used to propel the vehicle exclusive of thecombustion engine they are highly efficient, more so than a conventionalelectric motor under variable speed and torque applications.Conventional electric motors are efficient under a very narrow range ofspeed and torque for which they were designed. High efficiency requiresthat the flow of flux or the interaction of the flux between the rotorand stator be balanced. A conventional electric motor can over a narrowrange vary the voltage and amperage of the electricity in the statorcoils and in the process change the strength of the stator magneticfield, but it cannot change the strength of the magnetic field of therotors in a permanent magnet electric motor and only inefficiently inother AC electric motors. Thus, when the strength of the magnetic fieldof the stator in a conventional electric motor varies from its designedvalue it losses efficiency since it is not in balance with the magneticfield of the rotor. The disclosed MGT units can vary the magnetic fluxfrom the rotors with that of the stators and further increase thevariability of the stators by switching from all series to all parallelor combinations thereof in its stator coils, whereby the balance betweenthe magnetic field of the rotor and the stator is maintained by commandsfrom the computer system to move the rotor position, switch the statorwires between combinations of series and parallel and increase ordecrease the voltage, amperage and frequency of the electricity flowingto the stator coils.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or process operations, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

1-30. (canceled)
 31. A motor/generator/transmission system comprising:an axle; a stator support structure extending longitudinally along theaxle; a stator ring slidably coupled to the stator support structure andconfigured to translate along the stator support structure, the statorring having a plurality of stator coils disposed around the periphery ofthe stator ring; at least one stator linear actuator configured toactuate the stator ring in a first axial direction or in a second axialdirection; a rotor support structure coupled to the axle, the rotorsupport structure extending longitudinally along the axle; a first rotorring and a second rotor ring, the first rotor ring and the second rotorring slidably coupled to the rotor support structure and configured totranslate along the rotor support structure in the first axial directionor in the second axial direction, each of the first rotor ring and thesecond rotor ring having a plurality of magnets disposed around theperiphery of the rotor ring; and at least one rotor linear actuatorconfigured to actuate at least one of the first rotor ring or secondrotor ring in the first axial direction or in the second axialdirection, where the stator ring, the first rotor ring, and the secondrotor ring are selectably translatable in the first axial direction orthe second axial direction so that inner surfaces of the first rotorring and the second rotor ring are repositionable relative to the statorwithin limits defined by the rotor support structure; a controllerconfigured to control a voltage, amperage, and frequency of electricitysuppled to the stator coils; and a computer system in communication withat least one of the controller, the at least one stator linear actuator,or the at least one rotor linear actuator, the computer systemconfigured to control at least one of the controller, the at least onestator linear actuator, or the least one rotor linear actuator.
 32. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 31, wherein each phase ofthe plurality of stator coils includes a respective set of multipleparallel non-twisted wires separated at a center tap with electronicswitches for connecting the parallel non-twisted wires of each phase ofthe stator coils, the computer system configured to cause the electronicswitches to connect the multiple parallel non-twisted wires in allseries, all parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel. 33.The motor/generator/transmission system of claim 32, wherein theelectronic switches of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires includeone or more electronic switches configured to disconnect one or morewires from the set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires in each phase,and wherein the computer system is configured to cause the electronicswitches to connect a portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wiresin all series, all parallel, or in a combination of series and paralleland configured to cause the electronic switches to disconnect one ormore wires from the portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires.34. The motor/generator/transmission system of claim 33, wherein theelectronic switches of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires includeone or more electronic switches configured to disconnect one or morewires from the set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires in each phasewhen changing from a last series/parallel configuration to the allparallel configuration, and wherein the computer system is configured tocause the controller to apply pulse width modulation over thedisconnected wires, thereby giving a percentage of the disconnectedwires partial engagement.
 35. The motor/generator/transmission system ofclaim 31, wherein each phase of the plurality of stator coils includes arespective set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires separated at acenter tap with electronic switches for connecting the parallelnon-twisted wires of each phase of the stator coils, a phase wiring ofthe multiple parallel non-twisted wires in a star (Y) configuration or aDelta configuration, wherein the electronic switches include one or moreelectronic switches are configured to switch the phase wiring betweenthe star (Y) configuration and the Delta configuration, wherein thecomputer system is configured to cause the electronic switches to switchthe phase wiring between the star (Y) configuration and the Deltaconfiguration and configured to connect the multiple parallelnon-twisted wires in all series, all parallel, or in a combination ofseries and parallel.
 36. The motor/generator/transmission system ofclaim 35, wherein the computer system is configured to cause theelectronic switches to switch the phase wiring between the star (Y)configuration and the Delta configuration, configured to cause theelectronic switches to connect a portion of the multiple parallelnon-twisted wires in all series, all parallel, or in a combination ofseries and parallel, and configured to cause the electronic switches todisconnect one or more wires from the portion of the multiple parallelnon-twisted wires.
 37. The motor/generator/transmission system of claim31, further comprising at least one sensor configured to detect arotational frequency of the first and second rotor rings, wherein thecomputer system is configured to switch a wiring or phase configurationof the stator coils at least partially based upon the rotationalposition of the first and second rotor rings.
 38. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 31, wherein the computersystem is configured to switch the wiring or phase configuration of thestator coils in order of successively increasing or decreasing amp-turncapacities, thereby increasing or decreasing a corresponding strength ofa magnetic field of the stator coils, as a demand for power on themotor/generator/transmission system increases or decreases.
 39. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 31, wherein the innersurfaces of the first rotor ring and the second rotor ring arerepositionable from alignment with a central plane of the stator torespective positions outward from the central plane of the stator withinlimits defined by the rotor support structure, the computer systemconfigured to cause the at least one rotor linear actuator to place thefirst rotor ring and the second rotor ring in a first position on eitherside of the central plane of the stator ring where the distance from theouter surfaces of the stator ring to the inner surface of each rotorring is approximately the length of the rotor ring in the axialdirection, where the interaction of the magnetic field of the rotor withthe magnetic field of the stator is negligible, wherein the computersystem is further configured cause the at least one rotor linearactuator to place the first rotor ring and the second rotor ring in asecond position where the inner surfaces of the first and second rotorrings are coplanar with respective outer surfaces of the stator ring, oneither end of the stator ring, wherein the computer system is furtherconfigured to cause the at least one rotor linear actuator to place thefirst rotor ring and the second rotor ring in a third position where theinner surfaces of the first and second rotor rings are coplanar with thecentral plane of the stator, and wherein the computer system is furtherconfigured to cause the at least one rotor linear actuator to place thefirst rotor ring and the second rotor ring at one or more positionsother than the first, second, and third positions.
 40. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 39, wherein the computersystem is configured to position the first and second rotors in thefirst position, second position, or third position, or any positionbetween the first and third positions as a function of the amp turns inthe stator coils.
 41. A motor/generator/transmission system comprising:an axle; a stator support structure extending longitudinally along theaxle; a stator ring coupled to the stator support structure, the statorring having a plurality of stator coils disposed around the periphery ofthe stator ring; a rotor support structure extending longitudinallyalong the axle; a first rotor ring and a second rotor ring, at least oneof the first rotor ring or the second rotor ring selectably slidablycoupled to the rotor support structure and configured to translate alongthe rotor support structure in a first axial direction or in a secondaxial direction, each of the first rotor ring and the second rotor ringhaving a plurality of magnets disposed around the periphery of the rotorring; at least one rotor linear actuator configured to actuate at leastone of the first rotor ring or second rotor ring in the first axialdirection or in the second axial direction; a controller configured tocontrol a voltage, amperage, and frequency of electricity suppled to thestator coils; and a computer system in communication with at least thecontroller and the at least one rotor linear actuator, the computersystem configured to control the controller and the least one rotorlinear actuator.
 42. The motor/generator/transmission system of claim41, wherein each phase of the plurality of stator coils includes arespective set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires with electronicswitches for connecting the parallel non-twisted wires of each phase ofthe stator coils, the computer system further in communication with theelectronic switches and configured to cause the electronic switches toconnect the multiple parallel non-twisted wires in all series, allparallel, or in a combination of series and parallel.
 43. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 41, wherein each phase ofthe plurality of stator coils includes a respective set of multipleparallel non-twisted wires with electronic switches for connecting theparallel non-twisted wires of each phase of the stator coils, theelectronic switches of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires includingone or more electronic switches configured to disconnect one or morewires from the set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires in each phase,and wherein the computer system is configured to cause the electronicswitches to connect a portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wiresin all series, all parallel, or in a combination of series and paralleland configured to cause the electronic switches to disconnect one ormore wires from the portion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires.44. The motor/generator/transmission system of claim 43, wherein theelectronic switches of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires includeone or more electronic switches configured to disconnect one or morewires from the set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires in each phasewhen changing from a last series/parallel configuration to the allparallel configuration, and wherein the computer system is configured tocause the controller to apply pulse width modulation over thedisconnected wires, thereby giving a percentage of the disconnectedwires partial engagement.
 45. The motor/generator/transmission system ofclaim 41, wherein each phase of the plurality of stator coils includes arespective set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires with electronicswitches for connecting the parallel non-twisted wires of each phase ofthe stator coils, a phase wiring of the multiple parallel non-twistedwires being in a star (Y) configuration or a Delta configuration,wherein the electronic switches include one or more electronic switchesare configured to switch the phase wiring between the star (Y)configuration and the Delta configuration, wherein the computer systemis configured to cause the electronic switches to switch the phasewiring between the star (Y) configuration and the Delta configurationand configured to connect the multiple parallel non-twisted wires in allseries, all parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel. 46.The motor/generator/transmission system of claim 45, wherein thecomputer system is configured to cause the electronic switches to switchthe phase wiring between the star (Y) configuration and the Deltaconfiguration, configured to cause the electronic switches to connect aportion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires in all series, allparallel, or in a combination of series and parallel, and configured tocause the electronic switches to disconnect one or more wires from theportion of the multiple parallel non-twisted wires.
 47. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 41, further comprising atleast one sensor configured to detect a rotational frequency of thefirst and second rotor rings, each phase of the stator coil having atleast one of a wiring or a phase configuration associated therewith, thecomputer system configured to switch at least one of the wiring or thephase configuration of the stator coils at least partially based uponthe rotational position of the first and second rotor rings.
 48. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 41, wherein each phase ofthe plurality of stator coils includes a respective set of multipleparallel non-twisted wires with electronic switches for connecting theparallel non-twisted wires of each phase of the stator coils, thecomputer system is configured to cause the electronic switches to switchthe wiring or phase configuration of the stator coils in order ofsuccessively increasing or decreasing amp-turn capacities, therebyincreasing or decreasing a corresponding strength of a magnetic field ofthe stator coils, as a demand for power on themotor/generator/transmission system increases or decreases.
 49. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 41, wherein the computersystem is configured to cause the at least one rotor linear actuator toplace the first rotor ring and the second rotor ring in a first positionon either side of a central plane of the stator ring where the distancefrom the outer surfaces of the stator ring to the inner surface of eachrotor ring is approximately the length of the rotor ring in the axialdirection, where the interaction of the magnetic field of the rotor withthe magnetic field of the stator is negligible, wherein the computersystem is further configured cause the at least one rotor linearactuator to place the first rotor ring and the second rotor ring in asecond position where the inner surfaces of the first and second rotorrings are coplanar with respective outer surfaces of the stator ring, oneither end of the stator ring, wherein the computer system is furtherconfigured to cause the at least one rotor linear actuator to place thefirst rotor ring and the second rotor ring in a third position where theinner surfaces of the first and second rotor rings are coplanar with thecentral plane of the stator, and wherein the computer system is furtherconfigured to cause the at least one rotor linear actuator to place thefirst rotor ring and the second rotor ring at one or more positionsother than the first, second, and third positions.
 50. Themotor/generator/transmission system of claim 49, wherein the computersystem is configured to position the first and second rotors in thefirst position, second position, or third position, or any positionbetween the first and third positions as a function of the amp turns inthe stator coils.